A Dog Needs A Bone

Wood, Audrey. 2007. A Dog Needs A Bone.

I am reviewing this book less than an hour after receiving it in the mail. There is something so charming about this little, anxious mutt as she waits--sometimes patiently, sometimes impatiently--for her mistress to give her a bone. We first meet this dog as she is sitting looking up at her mistress with these begging, adoring eyes. "Mistress, kind mistress, please give me a bone, and I'll stay by your side, no more will I roam." Proving that she's easy to please she adds that it can be "a wheat bone, a treat bone, a toy bone, a squeak bone, an old one, a new one..."As the dog continues to beg promising good behavior of all sorts..."I'll never chase cats, or howl at the moon, or dig at your flowers in the hot afternoon, or play with the paper in your pink powder room." But in the midst of all her begging, the dog realizes something...her mistress is gone. Where did she go? When will she be back? And more importantly...will she ever get her bone?

One of the things I love about this book is the wide range of emotions that this dog experiences in the course of an afternoon. She's happy. She's sad. She's playful. She's lonely. She's anxious. She's content. And all of these emotions are illustrated so well by Audrey Wood's artwork. She has really captured what it feels like to be a dog. A Dog Needs A Bone is a fun and playful book for dog-lovers of all ages.

It releases in September 2007.