This Book Just Ate My Dog!

by Richard Byrne, Richard Byrne (Illustrator)

Overview

When her dog disappears into the gutter of the book, Bella calls for help. But when the helpers disappear too, Bella realizes it will take more than a tug on the leash to put things right. Cleverly using the physicality of the book, This book just ate my dog! is inventive, ingenious, and just pure kid-friendly fun!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627790710
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	266,450
Product dimensions:	9.80(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Richard Byrne is the author and illustrator of the Oxfordshire Book Award–winner The Really, Really, Really Big Dinosaur. He grew up in Brighton and learned to color at Eastbourne. He worked in graphic design before discovering his true passion in children's books.

Editorial Reviews

Yikes! Accidents happen, but usually not like this. Bella was surprised when her dog disappears into the gutter of the book you are about to read and when she screams for help, things get only worse when the would-be rescuers disappear too! In this picture book, Richard Byrne (The Really, Really, Really Big Dinosaur) tells a bibliographical tale without equal.

09/29/2014
Byrne's (The Really, Really, Really Big Dinosaur) comedy gets its mileage from a single joke, but his pacing is skillful and his humor sweet-tempered. Bella wears a knit cap and a sensible dress as she takes her gigantic spotted dog for a "stroll across the page." As the dog approaches the center of the spread, where the two pages meet, "something very odd happened." Bella looks back to see that the dog's front half has disappeared into the book's gutter, followed quickly by the rest of it; Bella is left yanking a leash that disappears between facing pages. It's an effective visual trick, and it continues to draw grins as people and vehicles follow Bella's dog into two-dimensional oblivion. Bella's friend Ben disappears ("Ben decided to investigate"), followed by the dog rescue van, the police and fire brigade ("Things were getting ridiculous"), and, finally, by Bella herself. A note asks the reader to shake the book sideways, which restores order—almost. It's quick, fizzy entertainment, good as a waiting-room read or an addition to the bedtime pile. Ages 3–6. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Cartoon illustrations in reds and blues and a succinct text work together in an effective design, building the dramatic humor. An illustrator's aim is to keep important parts of the story out of a picture book's gutter, and this funny, interactive book is a superbly self-aware - in more ways than one - exemplar of what not to do.” —The Horn Book

“A lively physical slant on the interactive picture book.” —BCCB

“It's quick, fizzy entertainment, good as a waiting-room read or an addition to the bedtime pile.” —Publishers Weekly

“A carnivorous book invites readers to participate.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Byrne's comical play on the book's gutter will entertain kids and adults . . . This book will make for a good one-on-one reading, giving children an opportunity to save the day.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

08/01/2014
PreS-Gr 2—This book gives new meaning to pictures being lost in the gutter. Bella takes her dog for a walk across the spread. She makes it to the next page, but her pet doesn't—he begins to disappear into the middle of the book. Bella tells her friend Ben what happened, and he tries to investigate but gets lost himself. A dog rescue car, a fire truck, and a police car all come to help but vanish into the middle as well, so the child finally goes in to check it out herself. A note then appears from Bella, telling readers to turn and shake the book. Everything and everyone come out, and all is set right again—almost. Byrne's comical play on the book's gutter will entertain kids and adults. The subtle background is done in a muted palette so the focus remains on the action and the vivid characters in the foreground. This book will make for a good one-on-one reading, giving children an opportunity to save the day. Pair it with Hervé Tullet's Press Here (Chronicle, 2011) to afford children the chance to participate actively with the story.—Emily E. Lazio, The Smithtown Special Library District, NY

School Library Journal

2014-08-20
A carnivorous book invites readers to participate. The book opens with an unseen little girl named Bella calling from within the book to her dog, asleep on the copyright page. Presumably, Bella passed the gutter of the book without event, but this proves confusing given what happens to her dog. As the tragically obedient dog crosses the gutter, it disappears. While Bella is aware that she's in a book, the background illustration could easily be interpreted as the sidewalk of a nondescript street (a less confusing choice may have been a text or white-space background, à la David Wiesner's The Three Pigs). Once her dog disappears completely, various other characters come to help but are also consumed by the book. Eventually, so is Bella, but she sends a note to readers from...beyond...requesting that readers turn the book 90 degrees and shake it. Lo and behold, all the characters fall out, and all ends well. This happy ending presents another mystery: If all those characters were "eaten" by the book, how could they simply fall out? The metafictive picture book has ceased to be a novelty and become its own, increasingly substantial genre, which poses an existential crisis of sorts for it. If metafiction becomes ho-hum ordinary, is it still doing its job? Misses the mark. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews