How Dachshunds Came to Be:  A Tall Tale about a Short Long Dog by Kizzie Elizabeth Jones is a mythical story about how Dachshunds were created.  The reader is introduced to a little girl who loves to play with her sea creature friends.  One day, the girl becomes sad because her friends are preparing to migrate to warmer waters for the winter. 

 

The girl’s sea creature friends decide that since they cannot stay with her, they will create an animal that can.  Each friend contributes a personal characteristic to the creature.  What magical beast do they create?  Dachshunds!

 

Will the little girl like the Dachshunds?  More importantly, will the Dachshunds like her?

I thought this book was a fun read.  I do wish that the story would have been a bit longer.  I feel that it ended quite abruptly after the girl is gifted the Dachshunds.  I would have liked to see more interaction between the girl and her newfound friends.

 

Additionally, I would have liked to have a little more background information about the little girl.  Is she living alone on the beach?  What happened to her family?  If she has a family, what do they think of the Dachshunds?

 

Scott Ward’s illustrations are simply delightful!  I love his use of vibrant colors.  Ward’s depiction of Dachshunds is spot on and I love the characters that he has created.  My favorite illustration is the blueprint of the sea creatures.  The detail of the illustration blew me away.

 

Overall, this book will delight animal lovers of all ages.

10 Little Hot Dogs by John Himmelman is an adorable book featuring a pack of mischievous Dachshunds.  The story begins with one lonely Dachshund in search of a playmate.  One by one, more playful pups fill the comfy armchair.  Will the rambunctious bunch be able to get along and share the chair?

 

I absolutely love the illustrations!  Each Dachshund has a personality all its own.  I can totally relate to the Dachshunds’ silly antics.  I own a mini double dapple Dachshund that was born without eyes and is completely deaf.  She acts just the doxies in the book!

 

This is a wonderful story for the emergent reader that teaches counting in an easily accessible manner.  Children will fall in love with the Dachshund characters and will enjoy counting them throughout the book. 

Oh, dear. This was not good. Very stilted dialogue, one-dimensional characters, and lots of completely unnecessary detail. The plot touched on some interesting ideas but they weren't explored in any kind of depth. And Phillip was a complete dick.

I'm going to start off by saying this book was not what I had been expecting. I expected something with some jealousy and maybe a misunderstanding. That only covered a smaller part of the book. Here we had them meeting, falling in love and sharing family experiences together. I liked the book, and for the most part it was good. Some things just threw me a bit.

José and Phillip were a sweet couple, and for the first half of the book I adored them. From what I can gather they were each others first, though it was not described that well. They were so loving and happy with each other. I felt it and it was so nice to read a book about a young couple who could make it work. We leaned about José being the oldest of nine and Phillip being an only child. We meet Phillip's wonderful parents etc...

It started going downhill after José's father showed up and assaulted him for being gay. From that point it slowly went downhill. Then the kids arrived and I was banging my head and ready to shout at someone. It's not fun when a character annoys you and for me it was Phillip. He know José would do what he did. It was inevitable, and he acted like a baby because of it. It was not a pleasant thing added to that I worried for a while that Phillip would cheat. From what I did read he would have done something if the opportunity had risen.

This book would not be for everyone. As I have stated, I loved the first half and had it finished the way it had started I would have been very happy. Some things just niggled at me. Left me pissed or overall I just wanted something else to happen.

i like modern books and although this is clearly modern. it feels like i a reading an old book. the way it is written i guess and the fact everyone was so horrible to jose over his being latino. it doesn't really matter anymore and knowing mexican people they are not treated like that.