Daisy Knows Best

In the third book about Daisy the bullterrier, Daisy teaches her puppies and the human baby how to open the mail, tend the garden, and fold the laundry, but Baby's mother has the last laugh when she cleans up the messy crew.

PreSchool-Grade 1-The star of Daisy Thinks She's a Baby (Knopf, 1994) and Daisy Is a Mommy (Viking, 1997) is back. In this new adventure, the bullterrier instructs her three puppies and the baby of the house in a multitude of tasks from opening the mail and setting the table to digging in the garden and cleaning up the garbage. Preschoolers will laugh at the lessons Daisy teaches the youngsters and their often messy results. The story reads aloud well, and the text is simple and repetitive enough for beginning readers. The soft, pencil illustrations reflect the lively humor and chaotic events described in the narrative. Daisy's many fans will be happy to see her back in action.
Maura Bresnahan, Shawsheen School, Andover, MA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this irresistible picture book, just a few words per page describe Daisy, a charming pooch who's a perfect role model for her three pudgy puppies and the chubby human baby who shares a home with them. The text on each spread is a study in subtlety. "Daisy teaches Delores how to set the table./ Baby learns, too" reads the caption for a depiction of the mother dog pulling down a laden tablecloth on the left, while the right side shows Baby wreaking havoc on a place setting. Baby even gleefully mimics Daisy's example of relieving herself on a sheet of newspaper. But when Daisy teaches her canine and human charges how to "fold the laundry" by strewing it around the backyard, Mommy steps in to provide her own style of pedagogy: "Now everyone learns to have a bath.../ because mommies know best of all." Kopper's (Daisy Is a Mommy) neatly framed illustrations are as winning and economical as her text. Daisy, with her long snout, tiny soulful eyes and squooshy postnatal body, is the epitome of doggy maternal love and duty. And the puppies and Baby's physical resemblance to each other is wonderfully comic. Ages 2-4.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As Daisy the dog instructs her three pups in the finer points of chewing up the mail, pulling tablecloths, digging in the garden and other skills, Baby tags along, an enthusiastic student. In return, Baby teaches the pooches how to ``fold'' drying laundry off the line near the garden. The mother comes along, expresses mild dismay, and firmly hauls everyone, Daisy included, off to the tub. A droll contrast between the scenes of chubby, intensely cute younglings wreaking domestic havoc, and the very short, poker-faced text, raises the level of humor a half-step over that of the book's simpler predecessors (Daisy Is a Mommy, 1997, etc.); while younger onlookers will crow over the disasters in the pictures, more sophisticated children who like, for example, Janet Morgan Stoeke's Minerva Louise stories, will appreciate the wit in this sunny tale. (Picture book. 2-5) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 3^-5. It's definitely hard to resist sweet Daisy dog, whose appearance in Daisy Thinks She Is a Baby (1994) was a total delight. It's even harder to resist Daisy's three rambunctious puppies, who play central roles in this new Daisy adventure. This time, Daisy isn't trying to be anything but a mom. However, in teaching her pups, she also teaches the resident baby of the house. The ensuing havoc, which Kopper depicts in delicate nursery colors, is wonderful, whether it's Daisy "setting" the table with pup and Baby by her side; Daisy "folding" laundry to the consternation of Baby's mom; or Daisy teaching her pups and precocious Baby precisely what to do with the newspaper that is spread out on the floor. Characters, both canine and human, are full of personality, and Kopper has taken care to preserve both the spirit and humor of Daisy's earlier adventures. A real charmer. Stephanie Zvirin