Publisher's Weekly Review
A scruffy mutt disrupts the flow of a standard introductory animal book in this goofy story by Collins (What Does an Anteater Eat?). Hints of what's to come appear on the cover, where a dog is featured, crayon in mouth, alongside a crossed-out title: "My First Animal Book." The story begins simply enough with the declaration: "This is a dog." But when a cat is introduced on the following spread, the hound is unable to give up the spotlight, poking its head around the edge of the verso. The comedy unfolds visually as the dog grows increasingly brazen with its attention-seeking antics, chasing a squirrel up the edge of a page, extinguishing the light on a bear, and piddling on a giraffe's back hoof. A chase ensues when the other animals attempt to take back the narrative, but the pup has other tricks to play right up until the end. With bright-colored backdrops, Collins's silly scenes focus all the attention on the titular dog, whose troublemaking manages to introduce a bit of meta fun. Ages 2--5. (Mar.)
Kirkus Review
A dog makes sure it is the center of attention.This winsome story takes the premise of a child's first animal-identification picture dictionary (in fact the crossed-out title on the cover is My First Animal Book; the title is written beneath it in crayon) that has been hijacked by the first animal presented in the book: a dog. A black-and-white, floppy-eared mutt with a crayon in its mouth takes the story in paw and makes sure readers notice who is really important in the animal world. Each double-page spread offers the simple text "This is a [whatever animal is being shown]" together with an illustration of that animal. The dog, however, inserts itself into each spread: cavorting, teasing, or, in the case of the giraffe, peeing (sure to be a reader favorite) and in general stealing the spotlight. The animals' expressions run the gamut from weary through surprised to annoyed and irritated to let readers know what they think about this forward dog. More than once (as with the title) the dog crosses out the printed text to write itself in: "This is a dog." Eventually the animals tire of this self-aggrandizing behavior, and a page turn reveals that "This is a chase," showing the animals in full pursuit of the dog. But the next page turn reveals that the dog is back in charge. If readers aren't laughing out loud by now, they aren't ready for this kind of metafictive playgive it a few months and bring it back out. A clever, wonderfully silly, delightful romp. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
