Hank and Fergus

 By Susin Nielsen-Fernlund nd Louise-Andrée Laliberté

Brutal.  Absolutely brutally bad.

Hank is a kid with a birthmark on his face who has an imaginary dog friend named Fergus.  It's made obvious in the beginning that he has this dog friend because he can't make real friends.  Probably because he gets teased about his birthmark and is embarrassed and then acts out.

 So a new kid moves in next door and tries to be friends with him and Hank gets all defensive and is horrible and mean to him.  So they're both horrible and mean to each other.  Which is usually how these things go down.

Then they make up and give each other presents in the most formulaic and artificial turnaround you could imagine.  See, making friends isn't that hard.  You just aren't trying!
No, I get it.  The moral of the story, that they explain in the last few sentences, is that having a birthmark on your face isn't so bad.  In fact, everyone has something weird going on.  Look at this kid; he's got a scar on his stomach!

This book won the Mr. Christie book award.

Martha Speaks

 By Susan Meddaugh

This is a classic.  It has its own show.  I'd heard of the book first, but I saw the show before I read it.  The show is delightful.  The book is less so, but only because the developments that were made later in the series really add a lot to it.  As a book on its own with no expectations, it's still fantastic.

The idea of alphabet soup going to Martha's brain instead of her stomach is so simple and ridiculous that there's no need to question it.

 There isn't  lot of plot.  It's just a book about all the adult things that Martha can do that are silly.  She eventually upsets her owners who very rudely tell her to shut up.

But she redeems herself by getting a burglar arrested.

I'm really tired of this plot point in books about pets at this point.  But what are you going to do.  I'm also really disappointed that the original has the family drawn as a ginger haired white family, while in the cartoon they're biracial.  I was really hoping the book would be the same.  But I guess that would be too wild.

It's still a good book.

Clementine in the City

 By Jesse Hartland

I have mixed feelings about this one.  My daughter begged me to renew it because she loves it so much.  It's written with printed text and hand writing, and the pages are sometimes one big picture and sometimes a collage of little pictures.  It's the story of a dog who goes to the city to get away from the boring suburbs.

 I don't really care for the story so much, but I do like how the character, Clementine, introduces herself on the fourth page or so.  I think the pacing is good, and the layout is great.  There's a new idea every two pages, which works well for a young kid's attention span.  The art is pretty decent, too.

The ending is particularly dull, though.  I think it would have been fine if it was just the story of the dog in the city meeting people and living, and maybe even working terrible jobs.  Instead, at the last minute they really tried to have a climax and some denouement.  It worked out fine, but it could have been better if it had been left more abstract and slice-of-life.

Snuggle Puppy

 By Sandra Boynton

Boynton does some nice baby books, some of which my kids are crazy about, some of which are funnier to read as an older kid or adult, but there are some real duds, too.  Like this one.

It comes with a CD with music that you listen to while you read the lyrics.

 I can't really be bothered to say a lot about this.  The drawing is pretty lazy.  Most of the book is just colourful text.  The text itself is really, really lazy rhyming.

But, I guess if you like this sort of thing, then whatever.  It's not the worst book I've ever read.

It's Only Stanley

 By Jon Agee

Everyone in my house loves this book.  It even made some of us laugh.  It's well thought out.  It's in metered rhyme with no mistakes.  The pictures are entertaining.  So many wonderful things came together here.

 Look at the eyes on that dog.  The expressions everyone's faces are great.  The dad being unphased at each of Stanley's activities is what sells the joke.  He plays against the family, who are losing their minds.  It takes an insane turn at the end that I'm not going to spoil for once.

This book is a keeper.

J'aime la Pluie!

 By Hans Wilhelm

These are Scholastic books from the "Je peux lire" series in "Niveau 1".  There is one sentence per page.  There are many, many books in this series, and they all have very similar sentences with different vocabulary.  Lots of use of the verb "jouer" and words like "attends" and phrases like, "Je sais!"

Plus, you know, it's about an energetic dog.  These are fantastic.