Job Swap: Dogs At Work by Margaret Cardillo

THERE THEY GO. WHAT DO THEY DO ALL DAY?

SOMEONE NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF US!

WHAT IF--our dogs all went out to work all day? What are kids supposed to do? Kids need someone to take care of them--to notice if they are happy--or not! Who will take them out for a walk...or stop them from unwinding all the toilet paper? Who will see that they have something to eat... Who will keep them safe... or give them cuddles and good night kisses?

WHAT IF THEY NEVER COME BACK?

Dogs (and other assorted pets) dress up in their working clothes or uniforms and head out to the job, boarding the bus and going out into the world to do very important things, like emcee a TV show, run for mayor, rescue people in fire trucks or helicopters or on skiis, read to toddlers in the library, herd sheep, or deliver the mail! And the kids miss them a LOT!

But, wait! Someone's coming in the door!

HERE THEY ARE!

I KNEW YOU WOULD COME BACK!

Author Margaret Cardillo turns the tables on tots and their pets, in her latest, Dogs at Work: Good Dogs. Real Jobs. (Balzer and Bray, 2021), as kids wait in their empty homes, while their pets go out to do the work of the world.

Being a kid's best friend is an important job, but in her book's Barkmatter (Backmatter), author Cardillo also describes actual working dogs doing their jobs--lobster-diving dogs, truffle-sniffing dogs, herd dogs, search and rescue dogs, fire service dogs, therapy and guide dogs, and sled and hauling dogs, as well as a "Furrier" Further Reading, and online sources. Noted artist Zachariah Ohora furnishes the jocular illustrations of real and comic dogs doing their thing to add to the fun of this turnabout pet tale.

Says Publishers Weekly, "The scenes showing canine morning and evening commutes represent lovely moments of deadpan humor, and each image reminds readers of what they love best about their pooches: their tenacity and steadfastness, whether at home or on the job."

The Making of a Regal Beagle: The Duchess and Guy: A Rescue-to-Royalty Puppy Love Story by Nancy Furstinger

Once upon a time, a happy-go-lucky beagle named Guy found himself without a family or place to call home.

Guy was just another down-on-his luck dog, three years old and homeless, but his fortune was about to change.

A young woman named Meghan spotted him in the rescue shelter and fell in love-at-first-sight with him. Already the owner of a rescue dog named Bogart, she knew Guy had a lot to learn about being in a two-dog family, but he turned out to be a quick study. But little did he know that his happy new life was in for a big change!

One day Meghan met her match when she fell in love with a British prince named Harry.

He treated her like the princess Guy always knew she was.

Guy gave his paw of approval.

But gaining the approval of the whole royal family was something else. And Guy was game to give it a try.

He liked the idea of living in a place like Barkingham Palace! But there were a lot of ways for a dog to run afoul of the royals. Digging holes in the gardens, leaving muddy footprints in the palace, and chasing squirrels up the royal trees could get him in trouble with the most importance personage in the kingdom--Queen Elizabeth II herself.

Could he keep a stiff upper snout with the Queen's guards? Could he learn not to spill Queen Liz's tea? Could an American rescue beagle fit in with the queen's preferred pets, her pampered porgis? But Queen Liz is a noted dog lover, and although her beloved porgis Candy and Vulcan had to give Guy the sniff of approval, he was soon trotting through the garden with them on the Queen's daily walks.

Noted animal advocate Nancy Furstinger's timely The Duchess and Guy: A Rescue-to-Royalty Puppy Love Story (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) tells the true story of down-at-the-paws pup whose rags-to-riches story makes for quite a lost dog tale. Furstinger slips in a pitch for rescue animals, and with the help of artist Julia Bereciartu's pleasingly recognizable illustrations of Markle and all the royals (even little William and Charlotte), pup-loving kids will find this happy story of a homeless hound who found himself quite a family a really fun read. Everyone loves a happily--ever-after story, and with a new little royal expected this year, it looks like author Nancy Furstinger has the premise for a sequel just waiting to be written.

Koke In Muscogee? Koke Goes to Oklahoma by Sharon J. Beard

Koke is a dog who likes to be on the GO! And for a fun road trip with his favorite person, OK-LAHOMA is OK with him.

And for starters, Koke goes to Spiro. It's close to the Arkansas-Oklahoma border, not coincidentally located near the Arkansas River, famous for its unusual "mound houses" built from sod and grass and clay. The Caddo and Wichita Indians lived in them and planted a lot of corn--until a long ago drought must have made them leave their distinctive houses empty and move on. But people still plant lots of corn there.

Later some Spanish explorers, DeSoto and Coronado visited the area, looking for gold, which they didn't find, and not looking for buffalo/bison, which they did find on the plains. Later on a French explorer named LaSalle passed through and claimed all the lands west of there for France. After Spain and France took turns claiming the area, in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase the United States bought that land in Oklahoma and a lot westward all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

American pioneers moved into the territory and perhaps copied their "soddies" or sod houses from the Indians. But soon the U.S. also sent a lot of Native Americans--The Five Civilized Tribes--west to the Oklahoma territory in what came to be called the Trail of Tears. One famous Cherokee, Sequoyah, creator the Cherokee alphabet, even settled down in Oklahoma.

Koke's person drives him across the old Indian Territory, past a herd of the state animal, the buffalo, the state tree, the redbud, the Red River, and Oklahoma City, the capital, plus the Ouachita Mountains, and the Wichita Mountains (Okay, Koke thought that was confusing.) From the highway, Koke saw some oil wells, a wild panther and some long-horned cows, not to mention lots of wheat fields and cattle.

"That's not a bearilla! It's a real live bear!"

There's a lot to take in on this road trip, in Sharon J. Beard's Koke Goes to Oklahoma (Westbow Press). Exploring with a big shaggy dog like Koke along makes the history and geography lessons more of an adventure, and young students will find it more fun to learn Oklahoma history about the Sooners and the Boomers and the Okies and the many geographical regions of the state with their canine companion, along with color photos of Koke the tourist.

Puppy Prep: The Everything Book of Dogs and Puppies

So you want to get a dog?

You've got a lot to learn!

And Dorling Kindersley Publishers have a brand-new book tailored for elementary graders who have a bad case of puppy love and can't wait to have one of their own.

But, wait! You need to ask yourself some questions first. What kind of dog do you want? Do you want a BIG dog, a small one, or one in the Goldilocks middle? Do you want a dog who is energetic enough to go strong all day and never tire of playing, or do you want a laid-back dog who doesn't need a daily mini-marathon to keep happy and healthy? Do you want an introverted dog who enjoys being left alone to nap, or do you want one who needs lots of affection and sticks to you like jelly to peanut butter?

Do you want one with an easy-care coat, a scant shedder who doesn't need anything more than an occasional bath, or do you want the iconic shaggy dog? (Beware! That lovable, funny-faced sheepdog is going to need daily brushing, lots of baths, fairly frequently, and perhaps professional grooming). Do you want a prestige pup, an unusual breed, or is a one-of-a-kind rescue mutt what you prefer?

For help in deciding, DK's new The Everything Book of Dogs and Puppies (Dorling Kindersley, 2018) is a very useful nonfiction choice. The editors provide a substantial history of the dog, with a list of their ancient ancestors on each continent. Sections with tidbits of dog lore, like Little or Large, Doggy Design, Family, Pooch Parlor, The Nose Knows, Ear Emotion, and Tell-Tail offer an amazing amount of information about dog physiology and psychology that every novice owner needs to know. Canine Characteristics points out the differences in habits and behavior bred into the different types of dogs--working dogs (rescue, military, detection and police dogs, herding and shepherd dogs, and hunting dogs), special types whose behaviors are somewhat baked in by their breeding.

There is ample advice about dog care (Day to Day), equipment and supplies (Pooch Palace), and feeding (Doggy Dinners), as well as a section on behavior training and dog tricks. As DK always does, there is a useful and thorough glossary and index provided to help young canine fanciers through the process of becoming dog owners. This book is a good start for young independent readers and can be adapted as a read-along for younger kids, comprehensive but not intimidating, and very appealing, filled as always by DK's large color photographs offered in their trademark spot art style. A real tail wagger for puppy lovers.

In The Swim! Puppy Pool Party: An Underwater Dogs Adventure by Seth Casteel

TEST THE WATER!

DIP YOUR TOES.

BLOW SOME BUBBLES

THROUGH YOUR NOSE.

What's cuter than a speckled pup?

A speckled pup doing a cannonball into the pool and flashing an underwater grin as he swims up to the surface!

Seth Casteel's newest in his Underwater series, Puppy Pool Party!: An Underwater Dogs Adventure (Little, Brown and Company, 2016), is another underwater romp with a cast of dozens of darling dogs, from a few weeks old to a few years old, all clearly enjoying themselves with the other pups in the pool. They blow bubbles and smile underwater, dive from poolside and duck to the bottom to retrieve water toys. They go down the slide to make a splash, and they climb up the pool stairs to the side and give themselves a shimmy and a shake, and a good time is had by all.

Casteel's rhymes (Give it your all--cannonball!) trip off the lips as exuberantly as the pups take to the water, making this one a joy to read to a child or fun for a child to read solo. The incredibly funny full-bleed color closeups of the pooches' expressions and body language in and out of the pool, all shot with a waterproof camera with (what else?) a fish-eye lens, are also a joy for the eyes. Included for dog lovers is an appended list of all the canine swimmers, with their thumbnail photos, names, and ages.

Salute summer with your own personal puppy pool party and get in the swim.

"... "Sure to make a splash at storytime," bubbles School Library Journal's reviewer

Other books in this series by Seth Casteel are Underwater Dogs Kids Edition, and Underwater Babies.

Pal in the Wild: Sniffer and Tinni: A True Tale of Amazing Animal Friends by Bend Helberg

MEET SNIFFER, A FEARLESS RED FOX, AND TINNI, A PATIENT AND KIND GERMAN SHEPHERD, THAT LIVE IN THE SMALL NORWEGIAN TOWN OF SKI.

DESPITE THEIR DIFFERENCES, THEY HAVE BECOME BEST FRIENDS.

Walking in the forest near town with his owner one warm summer morning, Tinni, a dignified grown-up dog, found himself being suddenly tackled by an enthusiastic bundle of red fur--a baby fox who seemed to have lost his mother and litter mates and who really seemed to need Tinni for a playmate.

TINNI DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF HIM!

The bemused dog allowed the little fox to climb all over him, sniffing and licking his nose, until he couldn't resist the invitation! The two started to play--chasing and tumbling like puppies through the grass. Tinni's owner named the little guy "Sniffer."

And surprisingly, during the next morning's walk, the little fox appeared again. The two were off on a chase through the woods. The agile little Sniffer was hard for the big dog to catch, running up fallen tree trunks and hiding in the branches, or dashing behind trees, jumping out to ambush his big friend. After a few days of morning meetings, Tinni's owner brought along food treats for Sniffer and toys for the two to play with. Sniffer was frustrated when he couldn't mouth a big ball in his little narrow jaws like Tinni could, but Sniffer could reach way down into a hollow stump until only his tail was visible, and was quicker at chasing squirrels through the underbrush. And when the winter came, the two rolled in the snow and curiously inspected their own upside-down reflections in the ice on the pond.

Berit Halberg's Sniffer & Tinni: A True Tale of Amazing Animal Friendship Sterling Books, 2016), illustrated gloriously with Torgeir Berge's up-close-and-personal color photos of the two unlikely buddies. Sniffer is an irresistible little orphan who will charm young readers as easily as he charmed the big German shepherd, and Halberg's simple narrative tells the sweet story of this unexpected friendship between two animals whose usual roles are to be lifelong foes.

Halberg's account joins the many fine accounts of unusual animal pairings that readers may also love to share, such as the photo-essay stories of the giant tortoise and young hippo, Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (See my reviews here) or the story of dog and elephant best friends, Carol Buckley's Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends. (See my review here.)

"I Call My Baby My Sugar:" Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her by Amy Novesky

Billie Holiday loved to sing. As a girl, she sang along to her favorite songs on a borrowed gramophone.

She dreamed of being a star...

... and a star she became--the Great Lady Day.

But sometimes stars need someone to listen.
That's what friends are for.

Lady Day's dogs were her best friends of all.

Billie Holiday sang all kinds of songs, and Billie Holiday had all kinds of dogs.  She had a pocket poodle and two tiny Chihuahuas, Chiquita and Pepe. She had a long-eared beagle, a Great Dane called Gypsy, and a terrier with a name that spoofed the song "Besame Mucho" named Bessie Mae Moocho.  But her best friend was a big brown boxer called Mister.

Mister was almost always with Billie. He wore sweaters she knitted for him, and a fur coat just like hers for chilly late-night walks.  He growled when rude fans jostled to get near the star singer. He kept her company in her dressing room in ritzy night clubs, snacking on the steaks Billie ordered for him, and even waited for her in the wings when she sang on stage at Carnegie Hall.

Lady Day was famous for singing the blues.

But the sadness of her songs didn't matter to Mister.

As long as he could hear her, he was happy.

Billie Holiday's life had its good times and its bad times, but she always had Mister, who was always ready to listen to her sing.  Then, during one bad time she had to be away from her best friend for a year. That's a long time for a dog.

Would he remember her at all?

Then, there he was!

Running down the train platform, Mister leaped on Lady!

Amy Novesky's forthcoming Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013) flows like one of Billie's easy-going jazz songs, focusing on the love and support that she found in her companion dog Mister, her most loyal and best friend.  Novesky's simple storytelling style is enhanced by Vanessa Newton's  photo-inspired period illustrations in charcoal, gouache, and collage, which appealingly portray the stylish Lady Day, glamorously gowned with her signature magnolias in her hair, and in her more informal moments cuddling barefoot on the rug with Mister, singing "Sugar, I Call My Baby My Sugar," to him. (See Billie and Mister in her dressing room here.)

"This introduction to the jazz great has tons of kid appeal," says School Library Journal..

Santa--Claws and Paws: Santa Paws by Rachel Hale

Puppies chase kittens;
Kittens chase mice.
Have you been naughty
Or have you been nice?

Adorable puppies in Santa Claus hats, tuxedo kittens on the keys topped with toboggans, a disgruntled white Persian in full St. Nick regalia. Trite--YES! Cute--But of course!

In her little board book, Santa Paws (Paw Pals) (Dissero, 2008), photographer Rachel Hale knows how to tantalize the tickle boxes of the very young, with her charming young dogs and cats, decked out in wintry red and green scarves, shown against holiday red and green squares, engaged in jolly holiday fun or peering out a frosty window, hoping for a glimpse of the real thing--St. Nick and his reindeer.

Now let's raise a toast
Of holiday cheer.
Here's to a merry Christmas,
And a furry new year.

Inexpensive and sturdy, Santa Paws (Paw Pals) makes a great waiting-for-Santa gift or stocking stuffer for the very young, especially those with kittens or puppies of their own to share the season with.

A Dog's Life: Dog's Don't Brush Teeth by Diane de Groat and Shelley Rotner

In a departure from her popular school days series Gilbert and Friends,Diane deGroat has a brand-new flap book sure to delight youngsters.

In Dogs Don't Brush Their Teeth! (Orchard, 2009) co-authors deGroat and Shelley Rotner have juxtaposed flap pages with what "Dogs do"--ride in cars with heads out the window, fetch sticks--with what "Dogs don't"--drive the family sedan ("Are we there yet?") and swing for the fences in baseball games.

In deGroat's hilariously PhotoShopped illustrations, digital art meets careful illustration and deliciously embedded visual jokes. For example, in the spread which shows the "Dogs do" page, a dog is cleaning his teeth with Breath Bones and chew toys, while under the flap on the "Dog's don't" page we see what dogs don't do--polish their teeth (complete with orthodontia) with White Fang Toothpaste and Oral D Doggie Floss.

Kids will no doubt begin to anticipate the under-the-flap action as they proceed through the book: "Dogs do" howl at the moon; "dogs don't" shout rock 'n' roll; "Dogs do" squat to answer the call of nature; "dogs don't" sit on toilets. In the final spread the designers have another little visual joke. "Dogs do" sleep on their owner's beds, while "dogs don't" read in bed; the bedtime book for the pajama-ed canine reader is, of course, Dogs Don't Brush Their Teeth.

DeGroat and Rotner use a variety of breeds in a variety of poses to make their Dogs Don't Brush Their Teeth! an inventive and charming addition to the "toy and movable book" genre for the preschool set.

Furry Warrior: From Baghdad, With Love by Jay Kopelman

In an abandoned house in the northeast section of Fallujah, members of the First Battalion, Third Marines--known as the Lava Dogs--froze when they heard a series of clicks coming from the one remaining room of the compound.

Grenade pins?

Clickclickclickclick.

Maybe timed explosives....

They should have prepped the room first with a grenade--tossed it in and just let it do all the dirty work. Instead, for reasons still obscured by war and fear and things just destined to be, they backed up to the wall on either side of the doorway and positioned their weapons to fire.

"Holy shit!"

The puppy turned at the sound of their voices and stared at them....He cocked his head, trying to interpret their intent rather than their words.

"You gotta be kidding."

Then he yipped, wagged his tail, and clicked his toenails on the floor as he pranced up and down in place, happy it seemed someone had found him at last.

Nothing could be more out of place in a zone of brutal urban warfare than a helpless five-week old puppy, starved, lost, and yet still trusting and hopeful when these filthy, whacked out jarheads have him in their sights. Yet when Lt. Colonel Jay Kopelman encounters this little survivor, something clicks between them.

"There's fear in his eyes, despite the bravado. He's only a puppy, too young to know how to mask it, so I can see how bravery and terror trap him on all sides while testosterone and adrenaline compete in the meantime for every ounce of his attention. Recognize it right away."

Marine Corps General Order 1-A forbids any behavior which would be prejudicial to order, which means that combat troops are forbidden to acquire pets--which means that military discipline encourages soldiers to "euthanize" dogs which attach themselves to soldiers and potentially interfere with armed action. But nobody among the Lava Dogs who discover the puppy will follow through on those orders.

"Not me, man. No way."

"Not worth the ammunition."

"I ain't some kind of sicko, man."

In other words, they had enough pictures already from Fallujah to torture them slowly for the rest of their lives; they didn't need any more. Warriors, yes--puppy killers, no.

So Lava, as the Marines name him, is adopted, nourished on MRE's, defleaed with kerosene, wormed with tobacco, and becomes dependent upon the kindness of strangers--in the end, hundreds of them, to stay alive and finally to escape from the chaos and death into what must seem dog heaven today.

Kopelman and his mates keep the puppy hidden and he thrives, growing so fast and bonding to the warriors around him so thoroughly that their biggest problem in concealment is quieting his courageous "roo, roo, roooo!" when he thinks some danger to them is approaching. Soldiers build him a hidden kennel and take turns caring for him as he grows, but Kopelman alone takes the responsibility for finding a way to make sure that he will have a future, perhaps even a future as a regular family pet back in California.

Keeping Lava below the military radar and keeping him safe from the cycle of death going on around him is difficult. As Kopelman searches for some way to save Lava from a military execution or life on the streets, possibly surviving on dead human flesh left by the wayside, Lava is housed by different troopers and eventually by the staff and reporters of National Public Radio, who are living in Baghdad's dangerous Red Zone to be closer to their Iraqi sources. First Anne Garrels, then Anthony Kuhne, and finally Lourdes Garcia-Navarro take him, despite the demands of their difficult jobs, under their wings. At one point, when Anne is temporarily assigned to Cairo, Lava is handed over to "Sam," an Iraqi fixer, to watch over. Now, most Iraqis are said to hate dogs: their religion deems them "unclean," but "Sam," too, falls under Lava's spell, and soon he is scouring the Baghdad black market for dog food and puppy toys and marveling at Lava's ability to sit beautifully on command.

On Anne Garrels' return to Baghdad, she even agrees to drive him to the Jordanian border to hand him over to an accomplice with arrangements to get him on a plane to America. As Kopelman tells it,

"And here Annie is, transporting a large puppy who can't keep still and whose face, popping up from one window to another..., announces to every person standing in the streets that an American and her dirty American dog are in the car."

When that plan fails and Lava is turned back at the Jordanian border, Kopelman almost loses hope. Soon to be transferred out of Iraq, he frantically emails every possible source of rescue for Lava. Serendipitously, he finally links up with people from the Vohne Liche Kennels who train and transport war dogs in and out of Iraq and who offer to fly Lava out of the Baghdad airport--if he can get official health papers and if the NPR crew can somehow get him through the checkpoint into the Green Zone to meet with the kennel's representative.

By this time Kopelman is back at Camp Pendleton, connected only by his bond to Lava and the many emails flying back and forth between the U.S. and Iraq. But Lava's story is now making him famous, and with the help of "Sam," who gets the official papers, his media friends at NPR and ABC, and Ken Licklider from Vohne Liche Kennels, Lava, with the cover identity as a "working bomb dog," is successfully smuggled from the Red Zone into the Green Zone and by armored vehicle into Baghdad International and is at last on his way to O'Hare Airport in Chicago and eventually to become Jay's family pet in a quiet San Diego neighborhood.

Trying to justify the effort put forth to save one puppy, he writes

"...which brings me to the last part of my confession. I want Lava to stay alive. No matter how bad things get, it's still better to be alive. I want him to be alive because then there's still hope...."

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava is a brutally honest yet emotional story, a dog story AND a war story which juxtaposes mercy and death in the way only an eye witness can do. Although Kopelman's own story is one for mature young adults and adults, this gripping true story is one that cries out for a version for young readers as well.

Under the Christmas Tree: Books about Dogs for Middle Readers

If you can't surprise a child on Christmas with a cute dog decked out in a big red ribbon, the next best thing is a book about man's best friend. Here are a few of the many good books about dogs out there that will be faithful friends long after the tree comes down.

Peg Kehret's collection, Shelter Dogs: Amazing Stories of Adopted Strays, recounts the true stories of eight dogs who went from homeless to honored pets. One became famous as a television actor; one pioneered as a service dog who could predict and protect her owner from epileptic attacks, one became a hero who rescued his family from a fire, and all went on to reward their new owners many times over for the gift of a home and a new life.

Not all homeless dogs are fortunate enough to be rescued and adopted by loving people. Ann M. Martin's story, A Dog's Life: Autobiography of a Stray tells the story of a female dog, herself the pup of a stray mother, who spends most of her life surviving on the fringes of the human world. With but one interlude as a temporary "summer dog" with a vacationing family, she wanders from place to place until at last, old and barely able to stay alive on her own, she is taken in by a kindly older woman who also needs a friend.

Sometimes the dog you love belongs to someone else, someone who shouldn't own an animal at all. That is Marty's situation in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Newbery Award book and sequels, the Shiloh Trilogy. Marty works to buy the abused young dog he names Shiloh from her cruel owner, but even when he saves up enough money, he finds that his troubles have only begun in protecting the dog he loves.

Noted author Gary Paulsen's My Life in Dog Years includes his honest and loving portraits of the dogs of his life--from the heroic moments when his sled dog Cookie saved him from a fall through the ice, his first dog Snowball saved him from a poisonous snakebite, and the street-smart stray Dirk saved the on-his-own teen from street gangs, to the hilarious tales of Fred, a one-dog tornado of material destruction, and Caesar, the huge Great Dane reduced to hiding in closets in fear of trick-or-treaters. Paulsen is one who sees into the souls of his dogs and writes emotionally but truthfully of their contributions to his life. Each chapter stands on its own, and the easy personal tone makes this an exciting and absorbing book for middle readers.

Some of the best dog stories are golden oldies, and a real bargain is Three Dog Tales: Old Yeller, Sounder, Savage Sam. This collection includes two of Fred Gipson's Texas-sized tales, Old Yeller, the dog who fought for and died for his young boy, and his offspring Savage Sam, who took his place, and Sounder, William Armstrong's Newbery Award book about a tough old survivor of a hound dog who becomes the symbol of hope for his sharecropper family. All three are twentieth century children's classics which will endure.

Sharon Creech's Love That Dog, composed in a sort of blank verse both easy to read and deeply moving, is written as a classroom journal in which the young writer reveals his own lonely and troubled life and his short-lived joy with the stray dog he claims and comes to love.

In contrast, Avi's The Good Dog tells the story of a much-loved and, some would say, pampered pet. McKinley, the top dog in his mountain town, helps a wolf named Lupin and becomes torn between his domesticated duty to his kind family and the "call of the wild" from the wolf pack his primal heart longs to join.

For young dog owners, here's an everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-dogs book. Whether the reader is a current dog owner, planning to become a dog owner, or just a hopeful dog lover, The Complete Dog Book for Kids, published by the American Kennel Club, provides beautiful color photos of many popular breeds and information on choosing and buying the right dog, as well as advice on feeding, training, and caring for the health and nutrition of that dog when you bring him home.

Under the Christmas Tree: Books for Dog Lovers: Rescuing Sprite and Other Canine Companions

There's nothing like a puppy under the Christmas tree! But if you're not getting a dog this holiday season, the next best thing for dog lovers is a great dog book. Dogs and humans have a special affinity for each other, and I'm sure if dogs could read, they'd be just as devoted to books about loyal humans as we are to stories of great dogs. Here is a new one and a pack of other fiction and nonfiction books I've blogged about this year that might just be the right gift under some canine-lover's Christmas tree.

Mark Levin's just published memoir Rescuing Sprite (Pocket Books, 2007) recalls the brief 26 months he spent with his dog, a shelter dog which Levin's family chose as a companion to their two-year-old Pepsi, Sprite turned out to be a dog of great personality and capacity for love.

An inseparable companion to Pepsi, Sprite also bonded with every member of the family, and when he started to have physical problems, the whole family rallied to try to save him. Although at last they had to let him go, his death made such an impression on Levin that he stopped work on a political book he'd planned to write and devoted himself to this memoir of Sprite.

Anyone who has lost a loving companion pet knows that the time pets share with us in this life is truly a blessing. Having lost my oldest cat last month, I'm reminded of the epilogue Kinky Friedman (mystery writer, front man for Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jew Boys band, and recent semi-serious candidate for Texas governor) wrote for his real-life and fictional cat Cuddles. He quotes Irving Townsend, who said "We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own live within a fragile circle...," and then wistfully adds, "They say when you die and go to heaven, all the dogs and cats you've ever had in your life come running to meet you."

While Kinky Friedman and Mark Levin might disagree on politics, on the subject of Sprite and Cuddles they would probably be of one mind.

For other inspiring stories of abandoned, rescued, and just plain beloved dogs, here's a collection of canines to consider:

Ted Kerasote's memoir of his dog Merle not only tells the wonderful story of love between a remarkable dog and his human friend, but also describes Kerasote's efforts to give Merle a chance to live a free life, following his canine inclinations, beginning with an always-available dog door to let Merle choose when to go and come. This is a moving book which also makes us consider the way we raise and think about dogs.

Far from the Utopian dogdom of the free-range Merle is John Grogan's loving and hilarious story of raising a rambunctious retriever in a suburban home. In Marley and Me Grogan describes how he and family learned to live with an obedience school dropout who once swallowed a gold necklace so valuable that they had to (gulp!) retrieve it for the owner. It was a rocky road, but love between Marley and the Grogans conquers all in this funny but touching remembrance of a rowdy retriever.

Award-winning novelist Willie Morris turns to his growing-up years during World War II in Yazoo City, Mississippi, for this wonderful story of a boy and his dog. Written as a personal memoir, My Dog Skip is really Skip's story as he changes a shy only child's life and helps him grow to manhood. Skip is the main character as he plays baseball and football with Willie, learns to "drive" a car down the main street, and is locked in a mausoleum by bootleggers in a midnight graveyard. Laughs, suspense, and a few tears make this a great family read aloud as well. The movie My Dog Skip, starring Kevin Bacon and "Eddie" from the Frasier show as Skip, is also a must-have for dog-loving families.

Shelter Dogs by Traer Scott is an intense portrait study of fifty dogs found in animal shelters. The beauty, intelligence, sense of fun, and depth of feeling these portraits show in the faces of these down-on-their-luck dogs reinforce the importance of considering the adoption of a shelter animal when dog lovers want to add to their families.

All of the books above would make great gifts for dog-loving older readers and adults. For a roundup of dog stories for middle readers, see my next post.