599.74

I liked the book Dogs by Juliet Clutton-Brock for two reasons. First, I liked the writing style. The writing style was informative and organized. For example, “The dog family, called Canidae from the Latin canis, includes about 35 species of wolf, jackal, fox, and wild and domestic dog. Canids are carnivores (meat-eaters), with special adaptations for hunting.” The use of academic vocabulary enhances the style of writing as it gives the book a formal and academic appeal. The writing style is organized as each section of the book is marked off into different areas of information about dogs. Lastly, I liked the non-fiction text features. I thought the text features were engaging, concise and clear. The text features included labels, captions, and a glossary. For example, “Dogs come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, with 400 breeds of domestic dog, all descended from the wolf, which was first tamed by humans about 12,000 years ago.” This text feature was of captions that were followed by a larger body of text that thoroughly explained the different breeds of dogs. The book also included labeled pictures such as a dog’s skeleton with labels so the reader could identify the various bone structures. This text feature is engaging as it gives the readers an extra component to visually look at while reading vocabulary that may be too hard. The big idea of this book is that there are many different breeds of dogs and a large background history on how dogs became household pets. ( )

Summary: Full of information about the man's best friend! Includes breeds, the many talents of dogs, and also jobs dogs are good at performing.

Personal Reaction: I still love to look at books like this to study details in the pictures. Especially to compare sizes of breeds I've never seen before.

Classroom Extension: I would have this included in the class library or perhaps in a science/ nature discovery of different animals. From the pictures students can gather many details about all dogs and find out about their pets at home.

Dogs is a Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Book. It is a wonderfully comprehensive book about the natural history, behavior, and domestication of man’s best friend. With full color pictures, diagrams and fun facts, it is an engaging book for anyone interested in learning more about canines.

The book is divided in to small, two page chapters that cover every aspect of dogs: The definition of what makes a dog; the evolution of the dog family; the skeletal, muscular, and digestive systems of dogs; Behavior and skills; domestic and wild breeds, and history of domestication.

I am more of a cat person than a dog person, but I really enjoyed reading this book. I learned a great deal. I knew wolves had been domesticated since the last Ice Age, but I did not know breeding started so early. The Ancient Egyptians and Asians bred and domesticated dogs. I learned that the now extinct Tasmanian wolf is not classified as a dog, and that there is an animal called a raccoon dog, which looks like a fat raccoon. I did not even know it existed.

I really like how the book breaks down the different breeds. I am not as familiar with dog breeds as I would like to be, and I learned a great deal. The pictures are extremely helpful and engaging. One problem I found with this book was that the set up is non-linear, but many different pictures and blurbs all over the pages. This made it difficult to sit down and read in one setting. I can see this more as a book to browse through, rather than sit and read. I can see a middle schooler getting bored trying to follow the entire book. I would suggest this book to supplement a lesson or research for a middle school science project, but not as a primary text. Three Stars.