Wild Dog Attacks (Animal Attack) [Paperback]

Suzanne J. Murdico (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: High Interest Books

These accounts of grisly attacks by vivioius animals on humans tells one of the horrifying sides to our relationship with the animal world. Each book contains facts about animal behavior, habitats, territory and hunting techniques.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7-A series aimed at reluctant readers. In both books, each chapter begins with a short accounting of an attack on a human. This certainly engages readers' attention, but one has to wonder about the messages being conveyed. Croc, the better of the two, is illustrated with full-color photos of the reptiles in their natural setting. In Dog, any homeless or abandoned canine is defined as wild. The author then goes on to talk about attacks by people's pets and hypothesizes that these creatures were allowed to wander by their owner. She seems to be presenting her own personal agenda that certain dogs are violent, vicious animals and cannot be trusted in any situation. This title could be scary and very upsetting to children, who would likely get the impression that all canines are dangerous and will attack them even if unprovoked. This message is reinforced by the large, full-color photos that show snarling and attacking dogs and victims' scars. Croc presents some interesting facts and should find an audience; Dogs is less successful.
Sheilah Kosco, Rapides Parish Library, Alexandria, LA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Suzanne J Murdico is the author of several nonfiction books for children.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Children's Press (CT) (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0516235168
• ISBN-13: 978-0516235165
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,144,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Missinformation, May 10, 2006

By 

Gregory Gibbard "Greg" (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wild Dog Attacks (Animal Attack) (Paperback)

This book incorrectly shows the Wild Dog, Lycaon pictus, on the cover and on one other page in this book as a photograph and neglects to inform the reader that there has never been anything written in fact or legend of a dog in the wild attacking a human.

Indeed those that know this dog will recognise the submissive grin gape on the cover and the book does not mention Lycaon at all within the book which is really about domestic dogs and attacks by those species on humans.

This book infact undoes to a large degree in the eyes of the targetted audience, children, all the hard work by researchers around the world who have worked and continue to work for this dogs future.

It should be withdrawn from publication until it is corrected.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Misleading, Poor Quality, Wrong Information, July 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Wild Dog Attacks (Animal Attacks) (Library Binding)

Wild Dog Attacks is a misleading title for this "book". It is not about "wild dogs" at all, instead it is about domestic dogs that attack people. A wild dog is not a domestic dog, a wild dog lives in a place like the African savanna (As the picture on the front cover of the book is a real African Wild Dog) and a real wild dog is not closely related to domestic dogs that we have as pets.
The information in this book is poorly presented, as the author and editors clearly show their lack of any mathematic ability, highlighted by constant errors in calculating dog weights (example: 110 pounds does NOT equal 242 kg).
The book is highlighted by numerous pictures of vicious dogs, bearing their teeth and the following text talking about how many people have been killed by dogs over a certain period of time. The book is essentially a bad cliche about the viciousness of dogs and how they need to be loved or they will attack. It is not even close to being correct.

It is aimed at children, but written so poorly as I first thought it was written by a child. The information in this book is not presented in an interesting fashion, and is full of holes and does not provide any real new insight into why dogs attack. Children not be scared of this book, nor will they find it interesting. It has information about dogs that is very vague and hard to understand why it is even in the book.
I would suggest that you avoid the book, as the information in it is so basic, and in some cases incorrect, as not not make it interesting at all. Also the book is misleading and poorly written.

I gave it one star because the rating scale did not go lower. I would recommend that if you want to read about dog attacks, you wait for the next time it is written about in the newspaper; at least then you might get facts that are correct and a story that is interesting and gives more reason to wild dog attacks than does this book.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars adequate not poor, December 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Wild Dog Attacks (Animal Attacks) (Library Binding)

There was a review on here on how "poorly written" this book was--thats nonesense--this book presents basic info about dogs attacking and does it in a straightfoward manner. I found a copy in a bookstore and thought it served its purpose. Its laughable how one reviewer on here made a big deal aobut the title and its use of the word "wild" gimme a break okay? for us who are not absolute worshippers at your alter of the dog god --an attack is "wild" so please stop playing with words. As for the allegation that this was written so poorly that it might have been "written by a child" is again totally unfounded. Methinks I hear a dog lover complaining because the author is filling an important niche that the rest of us want to read about! KEEP YOUR DOGS AWAY FROM STRANGERS --SOME OF US DO NOT WANT THEM SLOBBERING ON US OKAY? As for the book I read it cover to cover it is worth the money --its not the best out there but its okay.