Finder, Coal Mine Dog

Finder, Coal Mine Dog
by Alison Hart; illus. by Michael G. Montgomery
160 pages; ages 7 - 10
Peachtree Publishers, 2015

This is the third of the "Dog Chronicles" and another great tale told by the tail-wagging protagonist. Yes, as with the others in this series (Darling, and Murphy) the story is told in first-person from the point of view of the dog.

"My nose twitches. I am on the scent of rabbit on the brush and quail in the tall grass. The rabbit trail winds into a mound of thorns. When I poke my head underneath the branches, the perfume of ripe blackberries makes me drool."

Alison Hart creates a universe in which it makes total sense for a dog to be telling a story. But what makes it really cool is that this story is grounded in fact. In history. In a real town (Cherry) in Illinois.

The dog's boy is Thomas. Finder and Thomas live with Uncle Eddy, who hasn't the time nor money to house a dog that doesn't work. Despite his name, Finder isn't very good at flushing out game.

Finder gets lonely when Thomas is sent to work in the coal mine. But - tailwagging joy!- one day Thomas comes home with an idea: Finder can work with him in the mine. Pulling a wagon full of coal through a cramped tunnel way below the surface of the earth is hard work.... but Finder can do it. And when a mine fire breaks out, he discovers he can do even more. This is a tale of historic adventure - and I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but I will say that Finder lives up to his name.

What I especially like about this book and the others in the "Dog Chronicles" is the back matter. Hart tells about the Cherry Mine disaster that inspired this story, and about the animals that lived and worked in the mine with the miners. Hart also introduces us to a modern day mine rescue dog, Ginny. Ginny is the first dog specially trained for underground and surface mine rescue. You can lean more about her in this short video.

 On Monday we'll join the Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday round-up. Check out more great reading here. Review copy from publisher.

Big Cat and Hippos in the Yard...

 Big Cat
by Ethan Long
32 pages; ages 4-8
Holiday House, 2016

Meet Big Cat. He's a real member of the family. He naps, hugs... he can even fly (with help from one of his people). But mostly, Big Cat has fun.

Each spread of this book presents a single easy-to-read sentence that begins, "Big Cat can...." The story comes in the various activities that Big Cat gets caught up in - some not by his choice. Illustrations are large cartoons that don't distract from the text.

Not only is is a great book for early readers, it's a good model for budding young authors who want to write a story about their own pets.

A Hippo in Our Yard
by Liza Donnelly
32 pages; ages 4-7
Holiday House, 2016

Mom, we have a hippo in our yard. 

I love the way this book begins - with a simple statement of observation. Of course, mom doesn't believe Sally, who takes lettuce out to feed the hippo. Sally returns a moment later to pester her father.

Dad, we have a tiger in our tree!

I also like that the story is told entirely through dialog, with Sally's voice in red type and other family members in black. Even though it's not an "easy reader", this is a book that young readers could pick up on. There's lots of repetition, with Sally saying "Come see!", the sentences are short, and the illustrations show what is happening in the text. And while her family members don't believe her, Sally has reason to say there are wild animals in the back yard.

This is a great book to read before, after, or while driving in the car to the zoo.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

Yaks Yak

Yaks Yak ~ Animal Word Pairs
by Linda Sue Park; illus by Jennifer Black Reinhardt
40 pages; age 4-7
Clarion Books, 2016


Yaks yak.
Bugs bug bugs.
Flounders flounder.

This is a book crammed with wordplay: animals and the things they might do, if they lived in Linda Sue Park's universe. Yaks would sit around talking. Bugs would annoy their buggy friends. And flounders (a flat kind of fish) would flail helplessly because that's another definition of "flounder".

It's a simple structure - noun + verb - made more fun because both noun and verb are the same word.

What I like: The improbability of it. The imaginative illustrations of steers in bumper cars "steering" and crows boasting (crowing) about their accomplishments. And that there's a glossary that defines where the animals' names came from and the meaning of the "action" word. For example: a "kid" is a child, but "kid" also means to joke.

Review copy provided by publisher.