Martin Howard (2)

This is a hilariously funny book. I read this in one day straight and that day was full of chuckle and even tummy-breaking eye-watering big and long laugh.

Blake is a mixed-breed male dog with dominance problem. This book tells a story of his year-long prower struggle with 'The Owner', a bachelor desperately in need of a woman companion, and with a brute pitt bull who terrorise the park and the dogs. The story is told as a first person account or to be precise a first dog account, of Blake's show more experience day by day from 1 January to 31 December. It includes his love stories, his pursuits of cats and postmen and bits of dog wisdoms that he hopes humans would understand.

It's certainly a very entertaining book. While this is purely fantasy and Blake's thoughts sound more human's than a dog's, the boook does contain bits of useful insights here and there for dog owners, especially those with dominance (or lack thereof) problems and difficulties to control their dogs. Since Martin Howard himself owns two dogs I'm sure it's drawn from the real life. Certainly the dogs behaviour and the interaction between them seem real. show less

I'll be surprised if the average ratings on this book don't go up. It's super silly, but it' should be a great read aloud. I was definitely put off by the cover, which screams out laundry detergent or toilet cleanser (the design was probably "borrowed" from Harpic), but it is pretty creative and fun, and then most of the illustrations inside the book are germ battle scenes with neutral backgrounds. Also, despite the militant and highly combative nature of the book, the language isn't all show more that offensive, in fact is pretty tame and pleasurable, with a very theatrical spin that gives for a wonderful read aloud. I enjoyed the text quite alot, and more than I relished in the illustrations. Illustrator [a:Colin Stimpson|325798|Colin Stimpson|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66-e07624dc012f2cce49c7d9aa6500c6c0.jpg] actually seems to specialize in the "gruesome" ...

So, all in all a fun read. Not terribly informative, but I did get a lot of questions from my son after our reading, about germs and the "antibods". show less

This is a very funny book, which dog lovers especially would enjoy. Blake, the cross-breed 'author' shares his diary with us, which involves romancing other dogs in the park, constantly thinking up new ways to cause mischief and most importantly, taking on the park bully, a pit-bull called Razor.

It made me laugh out loud on several occasions - it may be not be a book to make you think too hard, and it won't change your life, but it will certainly make for a hugely enjoyable read!

Normally, I would give this book 5 stars as I did it's two predecessors, however, with a different illustrator, it detracted from the story. Other than that, the story was great and I hope Martin Howard writes similar books in the future.