Mari Bolte

A modern-day girl falls into a storybook of the Cinderella fairy tale and starts calling out all the messed up aspects like the bullying and the goal of a fast and shallow engagement. Cute and humorous and short enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Note: For some reason, the illustrator is credited as "Brendin Howllert" on the cover and title page but is credited as Braden Hallett in the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on the verso page.

First sentence: Rossi is a yellow lab puppy. He's training to be a service dog like his great-grandma, Roselle. She's his hero.

Premise/plot: What you see is what you get. A puppy is in training to be a service dog. In this instance, Rossi is learning to be a guide dog. Rossi doesn't have a great training day and gives up--or wants to give up. Will Rossi be encouraged by Daphne to keep trying?

My thoughts: Readers may be more familiar with the concept of guide dogs. This one does focus more on show more teaching lessons to humans on how to human than it does provide information on how dogs are trained to be service dogs. The series [all three books] seem to have this didactic nature to them. This one is about how everyone makes mistakes and that's okay. show less

This is a severely modern retelling of Cinderella. In this retelling a modern girl falls through the story back into Cinderella‘s land and becomes her friend. She brings with her the magic of modern technology. She helps Cinderella clean the house and calls her sister is bully and tells her dad he’s a typical storybook dad and he needs to stop it. It completely changes the way the story not only comes out in the end but the way the character sees it and turns it more into a story about show more fixing a bad family dynamic. In that way I think it works quite well. It’s rather cute but if you’re looking for a true Cinderella story stay away. If you’re looking for what a modern girl thinks about Cinderella give this one a try. show less

First sentence: Daphne is a shih tzu puppy. She may be small, but she has a huge heart! She wants to help everyone, and the best way to do that is as an emotional support dog.

Premise/plot: What you see is what you get. A puppy is in training to be a service dog. In this instance, Daphne is the star. Daphne is learning to be an emotional support dog.

My thoughts: Will readers learn about how emotional support dogs are really trained? I doubt it. I am so skeptical of the methods and processes show more being depicted. Again just personal opinion. The message of this one is that you have to take care of your own needs first. That is, the dog, Daphne, must take care of her own emotional needs first before she can be good at her own job in helping others. Most of the book just has ALL the puppies (each being trained in their own specialty apparently) doing an agility course and there is a "celebrity" dog. The plot of this one is just weird. show less