If You Were a Dog

July 7, 2014
Being a dog is only one of the options in this exercise, which invites children to imagine life as all kinds of animals (including, at the end, dinosaurs). “If you were a dog, would you be a speedy-quick, lickety-sloppidy, scavenge-the-garbage, frisbee-catching, hot-dog-stealing, pillow-hogging, best-friend-ever sort of dog?” asks Swenson (Boom! Boom! Boom!). In lucid earth-tone and blue-green gouache panels, Raschka (A Ball for Daisy) pictures the active animals conjured by Swenson’s compound adjectives, nouns, and verbs. A cat is “sandpaper-licking, purr-purr-purr-purring, furry-stretching,” a fish might be a “coral-peeker” or “toe-nibbler,” and the set of bugs includes a bee “flower-keeper” and a “water-gliding-skimmer.” Story-time speakers may find themselves taking a nonlinear approach, backing up and repeating the queries to let listeners consider different actions and personalities. Swenson’s playful language and Raschka’s amiable cartoons lend a welcome unpredictability to this animal game. Ages 3–6. Author’s agent: Sean
McCarthy, Sean McCarthy Literary Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

August 1, 2014
Addressing both a winsome girl character and child readers, Swenson invites kids to speculate what sort of dog, cat, fish, bird, bug, frog and dinosaur they might want to be. She provides plenty of inventive images to get young imaginations flowing. "If you were a frog, / would you be a / giant-hopper, / ribbety-racer, / mighty jumper, / dragonfly-chaser, / lily-pad-bumper, / croaking-ballooner, / summer-night-crooner / sort of frog? // Would you spring and zing / and hop all day? / BOING, BOING, RIBBET! / Some frogs do." Raschka's pictures, in a palette of cool blue-green and warm orange-brown, playfully depict each animal's antics against rectangular watercolor washes. His creatures, simply composed of thick contours and blobs of color, nonetheless capture signature distinctions, such as a "yarn-tangling" cat's mesmerized eyes and the businesslike mien of a "trout-snatching" bird in flight. For the dinosaurs, he supplies a warty-looking T. Rex and a blue-striped tree-chomping herbivore, wild-eyed and slurpy-tongued. Swenson dials it down in the final pages, conspiratorially acknowledging that, while kids can't be any of those animals, they can move and sound like them-for a while. Then, "You can... // GIGGLE, GIGGLE, GIGGLE! / like a kid! // And that is the very best / sort of thing to be." Swenson's rhythmic cadences coupled with Raschka's wry, upbeat illustrations yield a title that's a cheery picker-upper. (Picture book. 3-6)

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August 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 2-This book's cover art, depicting a child thinking about a dog, is indicative of this playful journey through the animal world. Swenson asks readers to imagine themselves as several different animals, including a dinosaur, a bug, and a bird, and decide how that creature's qualities would appeal to them. For instance, would the child like to be a "sea-sparkler; ocean-swimming, coral-peeker;/wave-jumping, /flash-of-color; toe-nibbler, /faster-than-the-big-fish sort of fish?" After this fun list of descriptive words, Swenson comes back to another specific quality of that animal: "Would you splash in the surf? Some fish do." These lists help emphasize the diversity of species and the many ways these animals engage with their environment. The text has a rhyming, sing-song quality that makes it a great match for preschool storytimes. Raschka brings movement, energy, and personality to his vibrantly colored art. With just a few strokes, he makes a hissing cat puff up in anger at a nearby dog, ferocious and threatening. Readers can act out the characteristics of that cat or fish as the story is read. However, this could also be used in a classroom, both as a model for creative writing or as a beginning point for expanded study on a given species. A fun way to get readers to use their imaginations in the natural world.-Susan E. Murray, formerly at Glendale Public Library, AZ

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