Pet that dog! A handbook for making four-legged friends by Gideon Kidd and Rachel Braunigan

 Petting dogs is just the best thing. It's honestly one of the few things about the pandemic that really bothers me - not being able to pet all the dogs we meet out walking, and missing our weekly cuddle time with furry friends from the local animal shelter.

Gideon Kidd, along with his mother Rachel Braunigan, started a popular social media site, "I've pet that dog" recording all the dogs he has petted and in this book he adds to his his experiences with trivia, activities, and how-to.

He starts out with how to properly approach, pet, and otherwise make friends with dogs, talks about some of the dogs he's met and dogs from history, and gives a simple overview of caring for dogs. The second half of the book is fun quizzes and activities and blank consumable pages where readers are encouraged to write about the dogs they meet.

The book is full of cute cartoons and pictures a cartoon version of Gideon, a white boy with long brown hair, on the front cover and throughout the chapters.

Because of the consumables pages, which make up almost half the book, I wouldn't recommend this for a library, although several reviewers have rated it highly. I'd say this is more of a gift book, to the little dog lover in your life. It's not an exhaustive manual, just a fun, quirky book about a kid who loves dogs and how to join him in his passion.

Verdict: If you have exceptionally well-behaved library patrons, take the risk and pop this on your shelf, but don't expect it to last too long, between enthusiastic readers and those who just can't resist filling in the empty pages. Even better, make it a gift for kids who love dogs and want to start learning more about them. I don't know if they come with all the books, but my copy came with stickers, a bonus!

ISBN: 9781683692294; Published October 2020 by Quirk Books; Review copy provided by publisher