With plenty of photos and several questions to test comprehension along the way My Favourite Animal: Dogs is a non-fiction book marketed towards 4 to 8 year olds. Readers will learn some interesting facts about dogs including which are the smallest and largest breeds (measurements are in feet, inches and pounds), how they communicate and how exceptional some of their senses are.
Whether you’re reading this book to a child or whether they’re going it alone they may need a little help with some of the words used. There is a glossary at the end which should help explain more difficult words such as vocalisation or threatened.
Did you know that dogs “can hear sounds from four times as far away” as people can? I knew their hearing was better than ours but didn’t realise it was that much better. This is now my favourite dog fact. My family used to joke that our dog knew when our car was several suburbs away because she’d always get up (even if she’d been snoring seconds earlier) and look through the living room blinds at the road five minutes before the car would drive up the road.
The font is suitable for young readers, with nothing swirly to add unnecessary confusion about what each letter is. There are large areas of empty space around most of the text which gave me the impression the layout may not have been finalised. I would have personally been inclined to use a larger font and/or made adjustments to the spacing to address this. Although to be fair I should acknowledge that I used to be responsible for the layout of a community newspaper so I may be looking at this from my editor’s point of view.
Stock photos are used throughout this book and feature a range of breeds. I adored the brown pup with the floppy ears and head wrinkles who’s intrigued by some daisies. I feel bad (sort of) for laughing at the dog being groomed. They seemed to be trying to get the message across to their human with very intense eyes that they never agreed to anyone putting a pink elastic band in their fur.
When I checked out Victoria Marcos’ Goodreads page I discovered that she has written plenty of other My Favourite Animal books, from sharks to groundhogs. This is the sort of book I would have borrowed from my local library to use as a reference for school projects but I don’t think it would have been part of my personal library.
Thank you to NetGalley and Xist Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.
Once Upon a Blurb
Learn all about dogs in this informational picture book. Kids ages 4-8 will enjoy learning about dogs through beautiful photos, engaging text and fun questions to test comprehension throughout the book.
Schizanthus Nerd 