Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail by James Horvath

Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail by James Horvath

Rating: 4 stars

As I stated in my last post, it's not good when I read a book the day it's due.  But it is a great sign when I read a book to one of my kids before we even check it out at the library.  That is a sign that I'll be reading the book at least twice a day for the next week straight. And that means I've got a book that really appeals to kids.  Hooray!

With Build, Dogs, Build in the house, I know what I'll be reading when I ask Kiefer to go choose a book.  He is crazy about construction right now, so the very fact that one of the dogs on the cover is holding a wrench makes him go ga-ga (even though, at three, he's really past saying "ga-ga"). Horvath wrote a story and created illustrations with kids like Kiefer in mind: the story is cute and about building a tall structure, it rhymes in a pleasing sort of way, the illustrations are bright and colorful and inviting, and he's got silly stuff mixed in with true facts.

It's like he's Duke the foreman, one of the characters in his book, double-checking the plan on How to Create a Successful Children's Book!

The beams go up fast, / building room upon room.
As the pumper pumps / liquid cement through its boom.

My kids were swept into the book in the first few pages, when they chose which dog they wanted to be, and on each subsequent page they found "themselves" and tried to figure out what they were doing.  Meanwhile, I read stanzas like:

Here's the tall building,
all crumbled and cracked.
We'll knock it down quickly
with a couple of whacks. 

The crane is in place.
The angle's correct.
Get the ball swinging now.
Wreck, dogs, wreck!

We loved it, and later today we'll check out the book Horvath wrote before Build, Dogs, Build, its prequel: Dig, Dogs, Dig: A Construction Tail.  You now know what I'll be reading twice a day for the next few weeks!

Wait a second…this just in!...there's another due out at the beginning of fall 2014?!  Work, Dogs, Work: A Highway Tail?!  Kiefer is now counting down the days for it to be published...