Dog Parade by Barbara Joosse

Dog Parade by Barbara Joosse, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

Rating: 4 stars

This book was a hit with my little trio!  And that says something about Dog Parade already: here's a book that hooks equally a strong reader, an emerging reader, and a reader who can simply but proudly identify "his letter" and builds excitement at each turned page.

There is not much to this book, but there's fun and beauty in the simplicity.  One by one, the reader meets each canine character: Tinkles, a dog that pees a lot.  Delilah the pug that likes to charm humans she meets.  Lovie the mutt so grateful to be rescued that he does lots of things for his person.  Should-be fierce Walter, a big mastiff, cowers behind his owner.  Each two-page spread has a different lovable pooch sure to make one of my trio say "Awww...cute!"

Somewhere on this page is a hint of what's to come.  A clue as to the costume that the dog will wear on the following page.  Tinkles jumps on his back legs in a clown costume.  Delilah puts on a flouncy, fancy dress.  Lovie is Wonder Dog, complete with cape!  Shy Walter hides behind a ghost costume--only his droopy eyes peek out.

The best part: our neighbor's dog, Fritzie the dachshund, is famous!  He's in this book!  By some coincidence (am I missing something?  Is Fritzie a popular name for dachshunds?) there's a barking-orders type barker dachshund that dresses up as (of course) a hot dog.  Pretty cute.

In the end, the dogs parade around happily in their costumes.  As I've never had a dog that wore costumes happily, I'm impressed that not one single pup is gnawing at the clothes wrapped around them. Fun little book, super great (yes, I went to grad school in order to pull out phrases like that..."super great") read-aloud book in case you're looking for one!