Dog Loves Books

I'm a sucker for stories about books. Most librarians I know are as well. Standing in my local library I spotted a title sticking out from the stack called Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates. I pulled out the book to see a smiling happy dog carting around a pile of books. I checked it out immediately. The very next day I stopped into my local bookstore to order the book. I couldn't imagine my own personal library without it.

Dog loves books. He loves how he can disappear into the stories and meet fun characters. So he decides to open a book shop. He does all the work of setting up shop, but after opening he's a bit short on customers. He waits and waits and waits. And he grows bored. Until he remembers...he's surrounded by books. He starts reading and suddenly the quiet bookshop is gone. He's playing with dinosaurs or in space. He's so busy he doesn't even notice that he has his first real customer. And he gets the joy of sharing the books he loves so much.

For a librarian this is about as wonderful of a book as you can get. Not only does Yates write a love letter to books, she writes a love letter to connecting people with books. This is about the transformative power of stories. About getting lost in the worlds in the pages. It's magical. The text is sparse. Yates lets her pictures tell much of the story. A two page spread just says "...a new adventure begins" as we see Dog bounding across the landscape in the pouch of a kangaroo.

Yates' pencil and watercolor illustrations were the highlight of the book for me. Dog is a wonderful character. He's noble and enthusiastic. He has a wonderful smile on his face for most of the book (other than his sad waiting scenes). His excitement for books is incredibly contagious. But at the same time he has a wonderful nobility about him. This is a dog who is proud of his store and proud of his books. The other characters have a great sweetness to them. The dinosaurs are more friendly than fierce. His first customer, a little girl, is rosy cheeked and excited. This is one of those magical books that will make you love reading and love books. Just as much as Dog loves them.

The Dog Who Belonged to No One

It is obvious from the cover alone that The Dog Who Belonged to No One, written by Amy Hest and illustrated by Amy Bates, is going to be adorable. Just the image of the smiling but scruffy looking dog tells you that this is one story that will tug at your heartstrings and make you go Awwww. The cover is not lying. This is one of the sweetest and cutest stories I've read in a while. I even got chocked up at the end.

The story alternates between the little dog that no one wanted and a little girl named Lia who makes deliveries for her baker parents. We see how the little dog tries to be helpful and friendly and how the girl works all day. Both the dog and the young girl are sweet and helpful but both are very lonely. The dog sleeps in the street and dreams of a warm porch. The little girl lays in bed and dreams of finding a friend. One night as a storm brews, the little girl races for home after her last delivery. At the same time a little dog is desperately trying to outrun the storm. And of course they both end up on the same porch, Lia's family's porch. After they both dry off, the girl and the dog become fast friends and they live happily ever after.

I'm sure that I've read this story before but I've never heard an adoption story told with such heart. The section about how the little dog tries to outrun the night because it doesn't want to be alone is just heartbreaking. The shared joy when they both, warm and dry, decide to adopt each other was enough to bring tears to my eyes. In fact, Hest manages to make us smile and cry numerous times in the book, which is impressive for a mere 32 pages. The story is told as alternating pages and it is only as we get close to the end that we see how the friends will finally meet up. There is a wonderful spread at the end where we can, through words and pictures, see how the two will come to the same spot and finally meet up. A sweet story, told well.

The illustration, by Amy Bates, are done with pencil and watercolor and are simply stunning. There is no other word to describe how beautiful and captivating the images are. I was completely in love with her depictions of the dog, which range from heartbreaking to cheery (a scene with the dog sleeping in an alley, made me tear up a little). It is the kind of depiction that would make anyone want to adopt this little dog. The setting, a small town in the late 1800s, is well captured. Little details like the storefronts and the costumes make it very believable. Bates uses a fall palette and mixes in some leaves to make it seem like winter is just around the corner for both of these characters. Bates manages to mix absolute adorableness with surprisingly detailed.

It is rare to find a book that tugs at the heartstrings quite as much as this one has done. I was in love with the dog and the girl from the beginning. And although I could see how it would end from the very start of the book, the beauty and the sweetness of the story made the journey more than worth it. One of my new favorite books. I'll be picking this one up immediately.

Dogfish

If I wasn't already in love with the pictures in Dogfish, I would have still fallen in love with the story. This has to be one of the cutest stories to be published in the last couple of years. The book, written by Gillian Shields and illustrated by Dan Taylor, is the wonderful story of a young boy who realized just how wonderful a pet can be. Even if it's just a goldfish. 

The full story is about our young narrator who wants a dog. He sees that everyone else has a dog and wants one. Instead he only has a goldfish. And the goldfish can't fetch a stick, go on walks, or play with him. But Mom gives the boy all kinds of reasons why he can't have a dog. The boy is sad, mom is sad, and the goldfish is sad. Until the mom suggests that the boy want what he has. The boy trains his goldfish to catch sticks. He takes him for walks. He plays games with him. And suddenly he realizes just how wonderful it is to have a goldfish for a pet. 

The story is cute and clever. When the mom questions how they would keep a dog, the boy always has a clever response. The author doesn't take the subject to seriously though. I love lines like, "These are our sad looks" showing the sad boy and the sad goldfish. There is sadness and happiness in this absolutely adorable book. Children will be cheering for the boy and the fish. Shields manages to capture the thoughts of a child well. 

The illustrations are rounded, simple, and adorable. Everything in the illustrations is soft and so cute you want to pinch their cheeks. The page spreads are colorful and filled with multiple illustrations. Taylor uses texture to create very tactile images. All the images are digital but Taylor is careful to make sure that we see them as almost hand-drawn. The boy's hair is made with what look like pencil marks that have been digitally created. But it is the roundness of the illustrations that make them so wonderful. Children and adults will absolutely love these pictures. This is Taylor's first book but I hope to see many more. His design work is modern, refreshing, and cute. This is an adorable book that any child would love.