For the Dogs! I Am Not A Dog Toy by Ethan T. Berlin

"HELLO! I'M GOING TO BE YOUR MOST FAVORITE TOY EVER!"

Teddy Bear pops out of the beribboned birthday box, ready to be the Birthday Girl's best toy ever.

"WE'RE GOING TO BUILD FORTS AND FIGHT DIFFERENT BAD GUYS! ISN'T IT COOL?"

But his presumed new owner is underwhelmed by his big plushy smile and a vest equipped with thirteen pockets. She tosses him over a shoulder, into the dog's water dish as she walks away. But her big shaggy dog sees potential in Teddy!

"YOU'RE GOING TO BE MY MOST FAVORITE TOY EVER!"

"I'LL CHEW YOU! AND LICK YOU! AND CHEW YOU!"

It's not a pretty picture. Teddy protests that a bear with a multi-pocketed fancy vest is not a dog toy. Dog toys are soggy with dog drool, ratty, and disgusting. He and his natty vest are meant for better things. But it's not to be!

With a disdainful look, the Birthday Girl tosses him off her her bed and into the black hole of unwanted toys next to the wall. It's total rejection down there, where broken or unloved toys go to collect dust.

"THIS KID IS SO BORING!" DECLARES TEDDY.

Maybe being slung around by an ear by a dog isn't so bad after all, Teddy muses. Maybe he needs to re-think this whole thing!!

And Teddy decides maybe he's cut out to be a DOG TOY after all!

Everybody's got attitude in Ethan T. Berlin's just published I Am Not a Dog Toy (Random House, 2021), from the spoiled kid who disdains the birthday gift someone gave her to the shunned toy Teddy who thinks his many-pocketed vest makes him an elite super toy, and the lop-eared dog who thinks dog doings are the most fun ever. While the supercilious Birthday Girl and the fancy-dressed Teddy Bear get their comeuppance, author Ethan Berlin's dialogue and hi-jinks between Dog and Teddy are hilarious, and artist Jared Chapman's googly-eyed Teddy and go-go pooch who loves everything make a perfect comic pair and, as intended, steal the show. This one is a charmingly-paced parable and a killer-diller read-aloud all in one.

Says School Library Journal, "Featuring one of the most thoughtless heroines seen in recent picture books, this sneakily adorable tale may offer readers a glimpse of their own behavior in their rushes to judgement over potential playmates and friends."