Customer Reviews

Circle Dogs

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Our three-year-old, who's a big fan of Margaret Wise Brown, absolutely loves the sounds and rhythms of this story, and wants it read again and again. She now recites it word for word. The illustrations by Dan Yaccarino give this book a really different feel from Henkes's books about mice but that's okay. In fact, the change magnifies the strength of his writing for small children. Like Margaret Wise Brown, he really understands their world view. A great book!

I saw that an earlier reviewer criticized the illustrations in this book as "overly simplistic" and lacking in cleverness. I had to write in myself, because I believe Circle Dogs is one of the most perfectly illustrated children's books in years. The pictures are simple, to be sure, but absolutely brilliant! It takes tremendous artistic sophistication to conjure up a whole world with a few simple shapes and colors. Yaccarino's illustrations draw you into a child's-eye miracle world of shapes and sounds, yaps and slurps and whirlwind motion. And toddlers are utterly entranced. I'm buying another copy to give as a gift right now!

My girl just turned 4 and is very artistic/graphic, and she just thinks this book is terrific (even though it says babies to preschool). I agree with the other reviewer, the plot is rather, um... lacking or bizarre (ie. it's never going to be one of my favorites). But she likes the pictures and the conceptualization of it, so I think that's the point. Now she goes around town and see's large O's and says "circle dogs!"

For those of you who didn't "get" this book, you must not own dachshunds. I bought this for my nephews--we're a dachshund family--and I think it's adorable. It truly reflects a day in a doxie house. My doxie is sleeping like a circle dog as I write this review! A must for weenie dog lovers and their kids.

We have been reading the circle dogs since my son was 1 and it is his most favorite book! He can actually recite particular pages and can do all of the little sounds that go with it. I think it's a great first book and plan on giving it as a first b'day present to several of my friends children.

I love this book! My son loves the book! It is clever, fun to read, great illustrations! I am planning to buy copies for my friends' kids as good little gifts!!!

She can't get enough of it

The visiting librarian read this book to the children in my preschool class.I enjoyed it as much as the children, so I ordered it for us the next day. I loved how Kevin Henkes captured the typical life of a dog (sleep, run around like crazy, bark, then sleep). It didn't have lots of words, so even my youngest students stayed involved. Calling the dogs circle dogs was a unique and amusing way to describe the dachshunds. The references to other shapes was helpful to my class as we had spent the week talking about how all things have a shape. We all loved the book the second time as much as the first.

I love Kevin Henkes' other books, and I love dogs (we have three). So you'd think that this book would have been love at first sight. But I don't get it. Sorry Kevin! Give me more Lilly, Julius, and Wendell.......and I'll keep coming back for more.

To be fair, my son liked this book reasonably well at age 3 or so. But his mom, dad, and grandmother HATED it every time that was the book he chose for us to read to him. Once in a while, there is a pleasantly poetic sound to the text, but overall, both the text and the "drawings" (which I could do on my computer)are aggressively simplistic, with no hint of cleverness or nuancing. Good children's books entertain not only children, but the adults who read to them. In a world with books by Maurice Sendak, Margaret Wise Brown, Roald Dahl, Shel Silverstein, Dr. Seuss, and more (including, when he's feeling a little more subtle, Kevin Henkes), it is unclear why anyone would pick this book. Instead, choose something BOTH you and your child enjoy - it will be a lot easier to instill a love of books if you don't have to hide your disdain while you're reading to your child.