CM Magazine: My Dog Needs Me/My Cat Needs Me.

________________ CM . . . . Volume XXIV Number 23. . . .February 16, 2018

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My Dog Needs Me.

June Cottrell. Illustrated by Jordan Wray.
Franklin, TN: Flowerpot Press (Distributed in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son), 2016.
20 pp., board book, $10.99.
ISBN 978-1-4867-1308-0.

Preschool / Ages 1-3.

Review by Dave Jenkinson.

** /4

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My Cat Needs Me.

Jane Cottrell. Illustrated by Jordan Wray.
Oakville, ON: Flowerpot Press (Distributed by Thomas Allen), 2017.
20 pp., board book, $10.99.
ISBN 978-1-4867-1309-7.

Preschool / Ages 1-3.

Review by Dave Jenkinson.

** /4

excerpt:

I take care of my dog every day.

I feed my dog. (From My Dog Needs Me.)

I change my cat’s litter.

I play with my cat. (From My Cat Needs Me.)

Future pet caregivers are the audience for these two board books. As the titles indicate, pets need their caregivers, and each book identifies some of the daily “tasks” that must be carried out in response to those needs. And so a dog needs food, exercise, bathing, brushing, teaching tricks time, a place to sleep and, most important of all, a human friend. The text for My Cat Needs Me essentially mirrors that of My Dog Needs Me except that the cat gets its litter changed (and does not get washed).

      Cottrell’s text is simple and direct- one declarative sentence per pair of facing pages. Occasionally, Cottrell adds a sound word to accompany one of Wray’s illustrations, and so the dog goes “Woof!” and makes a “Munch Munch Munch” sound as it eats its dry dog food while the cat goes “Purrr!” and “Meeeooow”.

      Wray’s bright illustrations are equally simple and straightforward. Both central juvenile characters, a boy in My Dog Needs Me and a girl of colour in My Cat Needs Me, are rendered in a cartoon-style. Pages are filled with lots of white space as Wray normally just adds a few small items to suggest where the pages’ actions are taking place.

      Unlike many board books, this two titles really don’t have a “teaching” function. Instead, they are just short, fun reads.

Recommended.

Dave Jenkinson, CM’s editor, lives in Winnipeg, MB.

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