A fascinating, feel-good tale about the unique dogs trained for conservation work.
A shelter dog finds a new job—and a home.
Tucker, a sweet-faced yellow pooch with floppy ears, loves to play. Relentlessly energetic and unintentionally destructive, he’s a poor fit for most families. After he’s returned to the animal shelter yet again, a worker warns prospective adopters that Tucker is “trouble.” Then he meets Laura, a trainer who sees something special in him. She starts by using Tucker’s favorite toy to teach him to find flowers among a row of cinder blocks. As Laura introduces new scents into the game, she’s able to channel Tucker’s curiosity, intensity, and obsessive focus on play into the skills necessary to locate invasive species and track rare or endangered creatures around the world. Vibrant watercolors capture Tucker in constant motion, whether in trashed living rooms or the jungles of Myanmar. The text, perfect for reading out loud, conveys Tucker’s boundless capacity for destruction (“Rrr-rip! Splat! CRACK!”), dedication to his new assignment (“He zigzagged across the ground…and kept searching until…There!”), and bond with Laura (“‘Keep looking,’ Laura said. ‘I trust Tucker’”). With humor, heart, suspense, and adventure, this story will win over animal lovers of all ages. Laura is light-skinned with brown hair; background characters are diverse. Backmatter notes that the book is based on the experiences of the real-life founders of Working Dogs for Conservation.
A fascinating, feel-good tale about the unique dogs trained for conservation work. (selected bibliography, photos) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780802855817
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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