What Is Your Dog Doing?

by Marilyn Singer, Kathleen Habbley (Illustrator)

Overview

This colorful, young read-aloud about all things canine is doggone fun. Woof!

Sit. Stay. Roll Over. But, dogs can do so much more than that! Sledding. Shedding. Inspecting. Protecting. Paddling laps. Dancing? Perhaps! Be it a working dog or a playing dog, man’s best friend can be pretty darn busy. This energetic, rhyming text paired with vibrant, playful illustrations is sure to get dog lovers everywhere eager to teach their old dogs some new tricks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442439962
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	06/07/2011
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	9 MB
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Author of more than one hundred books in many genres, Marilyn Singer is the winner of the 2015 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Her works include Mirror, Mirror, which was an ALA Notable Book, won the Cybils Award for poetry, and was on eight major best-books-of-the-year lists; Venom, an NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children; Fireflies at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book; and Tallulah’s Tutu and its sequels. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Washington, Connecticut, with her husband and several pets. Visit MarilynSinger.net.

Kathleen Habble lives and works in Wheaton, Illinois.  When she isn’t doodling editorial and commercial work, she’s at her local animal shelter doing “dog research”—and helping out.  This is her first picture book.  Visit her online at KathleenHabbley.com

Editorial Reviews

Newcomer Habbley brings 1960s cartoon–style spreads bursting with color and action to Singer's (Mirror, Mirror) direct, telegraphic lines: "Dog sharing/ Dog daring/ Dog in a chase/ Dog in disgrace./Brilliant dog that loves to herd,/ Famous dog that gets chauffeured." "Dog sharing" shows a hound with a goofy expression pushing his stuffed toy toward a demure poodle with beribboned ears—a spread in which the blue of the toy, the umber of the hound's fur, and the white of the poodle vibrate against a field of solid red. For "Dog daring," a small, white terrier rides in the sidecar of a motorcycle, zooming straight toward viewers. "Dog in a chase" is a bathtub escapee, and the "Dog in disgrace" is a doleful basset hound who holds a tulip in his mouth and wears a "Who, me?" expression, the whole given warmth and energy by the bright orange background. The combination of matte pages and intense colors creates a silk-screen-like effect, and the crisp edges of the shapes please, too. A companion volume about cats would be just the thing. Ages 3–7. (June)

Publishers Weekly

What Is Your Dog Doing?
Marilyn Singer, illus. by Kathleen Habbley. S&S/Atheneum, $12.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-7931-9 Newcomer Habbley brings 1960s cartoon–style spreads bursting with color and action to Singer's (Mirror, Mirror) direct, telegraphic lines: "Dog sharing/ Dog daring/ Dog in a chase/ Dog in disgrace./Brilliant dog that loves to herd,/ Famous dog that gets chauffeured." "Dog sharing" shows a hound with a goofy expression pushing his stuffed toy toward a demure poodle with beribboned ears—a spread in which the blue of the toy, the umber of the hound's fur, and the white of the poodle vibrate against a field of solid red. For "Dog daring," a small, white terrier rides in the sidecar of a motorcycle, zooming straight toward viewers. "Dog in a chase" is a bathtub escapee, and the "Dog in disgrace" is a doleful basset hound who holds a tulip in his mouth and wears a "Who, me?" expression, the whole given warmth and energy by the bright orange background. The combination of matte pages and intense colors creates a silk-screen-like effect, and the crisp edges of the shapes please, too. A companion volume about cats would be just the thing. Ages 3–7.

—Publishers Weekly, April 25, 2011

From the Publisher

PreS-Gr 1—This imaginative rhyming story shows myriad behaviors that a dog might engage in. Some are simply two-word phrases such as "dog dreaming,/dog scheming,/… dog sharing,/dog daring," while others are longer lines, such as "Dog that works the circus tent/Dog that's with the president." Each phrase has its own page with an apt illustration depicting the action. Habbley portrays a wide array of breeds in a plethora of locations from kitchen to sidecar to red carpet to vet's office and everywhere in between. The last illustration is of a child reading a book to his dog while the text asks, "Tell me, what is your dog doing?" This fun look at canine activities will be a hit with dog people, cat people, and all people at storytime or anytime.—Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH

School Library Journal

Snappy illustrations and a short, rhyming text depict a collection of canines in humorous activities from dreaming and scheming to shedding and sledding in this fetching story suitable as a read-aloud for young children or for newly independent readers.

The patterned text uses just a few words per page to describe each dog's behavior or condition, with the appealing pups alternating between playful or mischievous activities and useful ones. Several specific canine breeds are shown engaging in their own specialty: a German shepherd as a police dog and a border collie herding sheep, for example. A few of the canine behaviors will need explanation by an adult, such as "dog wired" for an overactive pup or "dog in disgrace" for a dog who has tracked mud into the house. The collie in the "famous dog that gets chauffeured" illustration will be recognizable to those who grew up with black-and-white TV, but probably not to today's children. Each of these illustrations provides an opportunity for discussion, however, introducing rich vocabulary into a super-short text. Computer-generated art from first-time illustrator Habbley uses a contemporary palette and crisp graphics to provide jazzy images of the adorable dogs. From a tiny Chihuahua "snug in a purse" to a huge St. Bernard, each dog has an engaging face and expression.

Amiable and entertaining, just like a well-behaved canine companion. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews