May I Pet Your Dog?

Yes you may.                  

THREE PROS

*While the text is chunky and choppy, the lessons of child safety around dogs were communicated as comprehensively as they possibly could be in this type of book 

*There was a really good balance of situations involving friendly dogs and, more impressively, dogs to avoid

*There's a line in there about a dog doing "tricks for treats" that I might steal for use in my daily life

THREE CONS 

*As I stated earlier, reading this feels like more of a chore than it actually is...with the repetitive conversational bubbles being the worst offenders   

*I could not get over how much the shadowing on the pants of the owner of the main dog (Harry) made it look like the lady wet herself (not to mention that it grows slightly darker and bigger with each passing frame in true time-progression fashion) 

*Not to pile on the artist here too much, but Jan Ormerod's illustrations of dogs are far superior to her depiction of humans (the nerdy clothes she puts them in definitely doesn't help) -- but maybe that is by design to keep the focus on the canines  

ONE DAD'S OPINION

I had a bad experience with the last review I did of a book centered on a real-life dog that was authored by its owner.  Thankfully, I don't think I will face the same criticism from Stephanie Calmenson, given the Borrow rating I plan on awarding it.  In addition to being a good resource to any child over two, it also is one of my son's favorite books to read this month.  He likes it so much, in fact, that any dog we see on the street these days receives the name Chester, Twigs or Harry (arising from the friendly dogs in the story)!!!                             

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