Home Alone Book Review

Home Alone
By Barbara Nascimbeni
Published by Thames and Hudson: July 6, 2021

Review
I'm leery of anthropomorphism. If there's no reason for the characters being animals, or if the story is some kind of fluffy nonsense, I'll pass. Home Alone, however, had us laughing and me suspending my disbelief. I could easily imagine June (our new kitten) getting into all sorts of mischief while we're gone, even though we see her napping in the same spot as when we left.

The narrating dog, who makes it clear that his name is not "FROU-FROU-sweetheart," goes wild when his owner leaves for the day; he enjoys her food, computer, records, etc. with his best friends from the neighborhood. He doesn't want her to find out, so he cleans everything up and sits by the front door like a good boy when he expects her home. It's undeniably cute. And funny. And hard to resist. Home Alone is a worthy addition to the pets-home-alone genre.

T was laughing out loud at the dog's antics while I smiled at some of the details, like the dogs singing, "Bow Wow Wow..." or the album cover featuring "The Beagles." Snoop Dogg's chorus keeps running through my head now. T said that his favorite part was "bouncing on the bed and pizza." When I asked why, he told me, "Mainly I like everything the dog does because they're all things I want to do that my parents do not let me, which I do not like." Hmmm. If I let him ride a scooter through the house, would he then clean the whole place by six?



You might also like Stay, Benson! It, too, is about a mischievous dog who has a secret life while the owner is away. Check out our review from back in 2019 here.


Note: A review copy was provided by Thames and Hudson for the purpose of this honest review.

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