This Is a Dog

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. [em](Mar.) [/em]