Circle Dogs (Paperback)

by Kevin Henkes (Author), Dan Yaccarino (Illustrator) "In the big, square house live the two circle dogs..." (more)
Key Phrases: circle dogs

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Ah, essence of dog. You wouldn't want to bottle it, but Kevin Henkes, creator of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and illustrator Dan Yaccarino have transformed the concept into an exquisite read-aloud book for dog-loving preschoolers. We meet the two circle dogs, who live in a big, square house, early in the morning when they first wake up. They proceed to roust everyone, distribute good-morning kisses, run in the yard, and dig circle holes. "Circle dogs like circle snacks--crunch, crunch, crunch--right from your hand. They like to play. / They like to roll. / They like to eat. / And then they like to sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep." Yaccarino, creator of Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, I'm Off to the Moon, An Octopus Followed Me Home, and Good Night, Mr. Night, shines in this 1950s-style, boldly graphic, shape-saturated tribute to the dachshund, or as Henkes sees it, "everydog." Preschoolers will revel in the supreme dogginess of it all--the circling, snapping, sniffing, gulping, smacking, and face-licking--and adults will be charmed by how artfully and elegantly Henkes and Yaccarino capture the canine je ne sais quoi in this fresh, original bedtime book. Arf! (Click to see a sample spread. Text © 1998 by Kevin Henkes. Illustrations © 1998 by Dan Yaccarino. With permission of Greenwillow Books.) (Ages 2 to 5) --Karin Snelson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Henkes, who spoke to an elementary-age audience in Owen and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, here gets down to basics with this lively description of a day in the life of two dachshunds. The tube-shaped dogs?one rust-orange with black ears, the other vice versa (both have blue noses and collars)?form circles while they are resting. At dawn, they uncurl and greet a mother, father, little girl and baby boy ("clink-clank,... clink./ Hear their tags?/ Mrooon, mro-o-o-o-on./ They stretch and stretch and moan and yawn"). The story follows a morning-to-evening sequence of mealtimes, playtimes and naptimes, and comes full-circle, as it were, with the dogs bedded down for the night. Henkes infuses even this simplest of texts with humor: at breakfast, "Papa drops his toast./ Oops! Where did it go?/ The circle dogs know." He balances full sentences with fragments, and punctuates the story with the everyday sounds of barking, crunching and doorbell-ringing. Yaccarino's (Goodnight, Mr. Night) opaque, geometric graphics and limited gouache palette complement the concise statements. Squares and rectangles form window views inside and outside the house, and hem in the fluid shapes of the dogs and people. Author and artist judiciously repeat imagery and phrases ("Mama calls them pooches. 'Those pooches!' says Mama"); and the diversity of words and sentence structures ensure a book that runs circles around the usual primer. Ages 2-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Baby-Preschool
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books (January 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064437574
• ISBN-13: 978-0064437578
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #726,773 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To be read aloud again -- and again!, January 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Circle Dogs (Hardcover)

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!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful in its simplicity, April 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Circle Dogs (Hardcover)

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!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Daughter likes it, June 6, 2003

By	"liz976" (Newark, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Circle Dogs (Hardcover)

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!"