  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 09/01/1998 PreS-Gr 1-A love letter to dachshunds, called circle dogs because of their ability to form that shape with their bodies. The text is simple, almost primerlike, with lots of onomatopoetic words: Circle dogs like circle snacks-crunch, crunch, crunch-right from your hand. The pooches play, dig holes (and get yelled at), sniff Baby's face and lick Big Sister's, bounce, bark, and sleep (a lot). The lively gouache paintings in large flat areas of color have a retro look, somewhat reminiscent of Lane Smith's work in The Happy Hocky Family! (Viking, 1993) or Yaccarino's illustrations for Laura Godwin's Little White Dog (Hyperion, 1998). Besides the circles made by the dachshunds, there are lots of other shapes to pick out in the pictures. Fun for the youngest dog lovers.-Pam Gosner, formerly at Maplewood Memorial Library, NJ - Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Bulletin for the Center... - 11/01/1998 Henkes takes a picture book U-turn from the rodents (Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, BCCB 10/96) to the dogs with this look at the antics of a pair of extra-stretchy dachshunds. Uncurling after a good night’s slumber, “the circle dogs wake up. Clink-clank, clink-clank, clink-clank, clink. Hear their tags? Mrooon, mro-o-o-o-on. They stretch and stretch and moan and yawn.” Thus begins a full day of doggy doings—lapping up table scraps, barking at the doorbell, digging in the yard (“Mama and Papa yell, ‘No, no, no!’”), licking faces, and dreaming of cats. These homey adventures are stylishly realized by Yaccarino’s retro-looking graphics. Simple shapes dominate the circle dogs’ theater of operations—the big square yard, the round heads of their loving family, the oval holes in the ground, the square toast that drops into a dog’s waiting jaws. The restrained palette of black and white and a handful of slightly muted colors will carry the images to the far reaches of the preschoolers’ story-area rug. The closing line suggests bedtime use: “Shhh. They’re sleeping now. And you should be too. Good night.” Forget it—this is too much fun for sleep. - Copyright 1998 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Booklist - 09/15/1998 Two circle dogs live in a big square house. Part loving pet story, part math lesson, this picture book dramatizes the toddler's visceral, joyful, licking, cuddling bond with two circle dachshunds. At the same time, kids will see the simple shapes in the house that the family and dogs share through the day. The direct physical words and the clear, bright gouache pictures, which are like cutouts on lots of white space, will draw in youngsters to interact with the pages, imitating the sounds (Kibble-clatter, kibble-nibble) as the dogs crunch their circle snacks in circle bowls or run in circles in the square yard or curl up in circles to sleep and sleep and sleep. Many concept books, such as Tana Hoban's Round & Round & Round (1983), use photos and other illustrations to identify shapes in everyday life. Here it is the playful doggie tale that will lead kids to find circles, squares, and triangles wherever they look. (Reviewed September 15, 1998) - Copyright 1998 Booklist. Loading...
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