Is There a Dog in This Book?

Reviewed by: Peg Becksvoort - Falmouth Middle, Falmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 13, 2015

Review

While the lift-the-flap format might not last long in a library setting, this colorful and humorous story will entertain until the pages are fuzzy and torn.

Three hysterical cats, with excellent cat-expressions and cat-ittudes, explore the distinct possibility that there is a DOG in the book. With a Mo Willems style of asking questions that require the reader and the listener to talk with each other - Schwarz leads us on a very funny and entertaining romp through the house looking for the dog.

We lift the flap and find the dog behind the couch, and then the cats begin to hide: in the piano, in the closet, in a suitcase.... while the dog sniffs them out. Finally the cats overwhelm the dog with love; the dog runs and hides; the cats panic and mourn the dog's disappearance; and all turns out for the best as the cats and dog find one another again - enjoying each other for who they are, not who they thought the other one was. The flaps won't last that long, but the readers will have fun!

Overall Book Score: very good