Catherine Nichols

I really enjoyed this book and I think young readers would too., whether you read it to them or they read it themselves. It is a fairly short chapter book about Elliott and his brother Sam who works at an animal shelter. Elliott has to go with his brother to work and he doesn't want to go, but 2 neighborhood girls beg to go along. A bad storm hit, roads are flooded and they must get the dogs to safety. Interspersed are learning pages teaching about pets, animal shelters, vets, animal show more adoption and puppy care. It teaches the importance of responsibility and kindness to animals. I love the fact that it teaches young readers about animal adoption instead of purchasing expensive pets while so many animals die in shelters. show less

A small coastal town in Maine finds its peace disrupted by "the Trasher" -- someone who keeps knocking down garbage cans and stinking up the whole neighborhood. Siblings Maddie and Atticus are on the case, determined to find the culprit. Meanwhile, a pod of dolphins have been showing up along the coast, and the brother and sister start to form a bond with them.

This was a really cute chapter book, simple and sweet. The mystery is a completely non-scary one, but it still has some twists and show more turns. As an adult, I guessed the culprit very early on, whereas my 10-year-old niece figured it out closer towards the last few chapters. Since she's more of the target audience, her opinion counts more here and she enjoyed the book. The plotline with the dolphins will really appeal to animal lovers.

Sprinkled throughout the book are nonfiction facts about ocean life, from types of boats to tidal creatures. This was interesting and informative, but I found the placement odd. Sometimes the facts made sense with that part of the story and sometimes they seemed a little more random. But more to the point, these page spreads often came in the middle of a chapter or even the middle of a sentence! They would have been more effective as asides at the end of each chapter.

The watercolor-looking illustrations marking the story's progression are fine but not strictly necessary. The factual information is accompanied by stunning full-color photographs, which are nice addition. Indeed, with all these breaks in the text, this short book will fly by even quicker, making it perfect for relatively beginning readers (i.e., those who have graduated beyond early readers but aren't yet ready to tackle a 200-page novel).

The book makes some nods toward diversity, especially as seen in the illustrations. The biggest thing to note in this regards from the text itself is that the siblings are being raised by a single father. (Of course, while seeing single parenthood represented is good, the reality is that there are far more single mothers than fathers, even though literature shows the opposite. Oh well.) show less

There is a lot going on in this early reader chapter book. The story itself is cute. Elliott does not have any friends and prefers to spend time alone. His older brother Sam, is a volunteer at an animal shelter. Sam has to go in to work and must take Elliott with him as their parents are not home. Elliott is afraid of dogs, but does not want anyone to know. His neighbours, Amy and Kyung ask to go with them to see the puppies. Off they go. At the shelter them meet a man, Mr. Rooney who lives show more nearby and recently lost his old dog Quincy. While at the shelter, Elliott meets an older dog, Toby and the girls fall in love with the puppies. With a storm raging and the possibility of the shelter flooding, they take the dogs and puppies to Mr. Rooney's cabin on the hill. While there they solve a series of riddles to find a treasure, lose one of the puppies and become friends with Mr. Rooney. All's well that ends well. This is a cute story about caring for pets as well as the importance of rescue animals needing a home. Throughout the story there are factual pages about caring for animals, adopting a new pet and more. A great book for a primary/junior classroom, family library and school. This book could be used when learning about pets, if a family is considering adopting an animal and about friendship. The publisher generously provided a copy of this book via netgalley. show less

Bit of a disappointment, but that's partly my fault. I was hoping for essentially a guide to the Visual treatment of Alice's Wonderland (across several media), but instead it's an illustrated book to the treatment of Alice's Wonderland (across several media), which is not quite the same thing. So there's still space out there for a book on the subject (even "Illustrating Alice" which is prohibitively expensive and hard to find in libraries only tackles, presumably, book illustration).

So not show more enough illustrative material, and not enough analysis of the visual interpretation and choices, for my liking.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). show less