That Dog! By Emma Lazell
Published April 2020 by Pavilion Children's
That Dog! has me laughing every time we read it. It's funny and cute. The background illustrations are chock full of humorous details. And the detective theme is right up T's alley.
The story begins with Penny, a dognapper, and her new, bumbling assistant. When a spotted dog moves into town, she sends Pat to steal it. Breaking into the dog's house multiple times, he brings home every other pet with spots, but somehow misses the dog that's right in front of him. In the end, the dog, who has been observing Pat's blunders, leads the police to Penny's door. All the previously-stolen dogs (and other pets) are returned to their owners, which T is gratified to see.
I do find the premise questionable, but the laughs it elicits outweigh my bafflement with how these dognappers walked other people's pets around town without notice (especially with so many WANTED posters up and mugshots in the local paper). That Dog! skirts the bounds of anthropomorphism but is one of the few books of this sort that I actively choose to read with T. To give you an idea, Richard Scarry and Benjamin Chaud also make the cut. The reason? All those funny little details in the illustrations.
For dog lovers and those who love to laugh, That Dog! is worth the read.
Son's Review
(Age: 5)
What happens:
So there's a dog who Penny wants a lot, and he's [sic] a dog robber, and he has a lot of dogs, and he wants a certain dog that's in town that he likes, and he needs help from his new assistant Pat. And gets arrested.
There's different signs in the book that say, "WANTED."
It's really funny.
The funniest part:
When the dog tricks them and hides. And then, "ding-dong," and they think it won't be the dog, but it's the dog. And he comes with the police, and he arrests Penny and Pat. And the dog is kind of like a detective thing.
T's favorite part:
When the dognappers get arrested because that's funny. They seem super dumb, and they don't know what to do. And when they want a bunch of dogs, they don't even think about how much room they have in their house. Soon they're gonna be squished.
How the dognappers could go undetected despite a large pack of dogs in their home:
Maybe they kept the dogs inside and they would lock the doors. Maybe they would not open the windows.
The final illustration leads T to wonder, "I wonder if we'll get a cat-napper book?" Is a sequel in the works, Ms. Lazell?
Note: A review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
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