The Perfect Dog

by John O'Hurley, John O'Hurley (Read by)

Overview

My son asked a question, as little boys do,
Of me in my wisdom and all that I knew.
“Is there a dog that is perfect?” he asked on a whim.
Well, I thought,
And I thought about where to begin.

With all the wonderful kinds of dogs in the world, is there really just one kind that is better than all the rest? John O’Hurley’s delightfully charming and Seuss-like poem answers that question with a surprisingly perfect answer. This heartwarming message about man’s best friend, accompanied by photographs that capture the essence of dog-ness, is sure to be treasured by dog lovers and non-dog lovers alike. The book comes with an audio CD of John's reading of the poem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698158696
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	10/31/2013
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Award-winning actor, host, composer, and writer – and lifelong dog lover – John O’Hurley is one of television’s busiest and most versatile personalities. Since 2002, he has served as the host of NBC’s National Dog Show presented by Purina®, which attracts an audience of more than 20 million viewers each Thanksgiving. He danced his way into the hearts of America as the ultimate champion on the first season of the hit ABC show Dancing with the Stars. He is well known for his portrayal of the wry and witty J. Peterman on Seinfeld, the host of Family Feud, and as the voice of many popular cartoon characters, such as King Neptune in SpongeBob SquarePants. He is the author of several books, including the New York Times Best Seller It’s OK to Miss the Bed on the First Jump. John, his wife, Lisa, and their son, Will, share their home in Beverly Hills with Sadie, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, and Lucy, a Havanese.

Editorial Reviews

2013-10-01
O'Hurley, a television and stage actor as well as a writer, serves as the narrator of this awkward, sticky-sweet story about what kind of dog makes the perfect companion. The author and his real-life son are shown together in the first photo illustration, with the little boy holding his cuddly toy dog, who also appears on the cover. Subsequent spreads show a different breed of dog on each right-hand page, matched with one line of descriptive text on facing left-hand pages. Each short phrase describes one canine trait or behavior, such as floppy ears or sleepy eyes, which an ideal dog would possess. The rhyming text is sometimes cumbersome, with awkward scansion that leads to some convoluted usages ("[a]nd then have spots not"), and attempts at whimsy will sail right over the heads of the intended audience A pat ending shows the little boy asleep with his stuffed dog (who looks rather like a bunny), juxtaposed with his sentimental assertion that "[t]he dog that is perfect is the one next to you." This overlapping of real dogs and their characteristics with the stuffed dog is confusing rather than clever. Dozens of other, better books about dogs dig deeper into the bonds between child and canine. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews