At the Dog Park with Sam and Lucy (Sit! Stay! Read!)

The big idea of this story is life as a dog. The story is very linear and easy to read, which would be great for new readers. The illustrations were bright, large and went along well with the story. I really liked this story because I have never read a book from the point of view of a dog.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked that the book was told from the point of view of the dogs’ thoughts because this is different from many children’s books that kids read. However, I found that it was often difficult to know who the thinker was since many of the pages have multiple dogs pictured on them. I liked the fact that the illustrations were very similar on each page, taking up majority of the page with only a small line of text at the bottom. These illustrations are very realistic and appealing to kids who like dogs. Although this book would be appealing to kids who like dogs, I do not feel as if all children would find this book interesting. Another thing that I dislike about this book is the fact that it just show more starts and ends. There is no real plot because it is just a story about what dogs like to do at the dog park. Overall, the big idea of this book is to tell kids of activities that dogs engage in at the dog park from a unique perspective. show less

School Library Journal, January 2007, page 88:

"Sam and Lucy are excited to be going to the dog park with their 'people'. Written entirely in short phrases 'spoken' by the various animals, the text is breezy and light..."