How Dogs Really Work!

A humorous look at the idiosyncracies of canine behavior answers questions such as How does a dog know what to do when it meets a cat? and other common conundrums.

In this tongue-in-cheek manual, mechanical illustrations--complete with levers, pipes and springs--fancifully, if not always hilariously, clarify dogs' inner workings. Snow's ( The Monster Book of ABC Sounds ) dry, witty remarks supplement illustrations including a stem-to-stern cross-section of an all-purpose breed that exposes a network of sensors and tubing. Here, a tiny thermometer and fan are shown to power a dog's nose, a microphone is seen to occupy each ear and a front-loading washing machine depicts the stomach. One particularly, ahem, tricky area receives the innocuous label "waste disposal." Neatly hand-printed text advances the blueprint effect, and later pages explore "general maintenance" of the dog (although a warning reminds owners to "please refer servicing . . . to a qualified expert"). Despite the well-planned diagrams and agreeable drawings of grinning pets, the clinical, deadpan humor sometimes falls flat, and the concept of animal-as-machine seems contradicted by the presence of mini-pups that apparently monitor the canine controls. Clever as Snow's idea is, his execution falls short of its potential. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Cutaway cartoons reveal that the Dog is really filled with levers, pistons, tubes, vats, memory banks, sniff motors, and waste disposal plumbing. A straight-faced narrative explains: ``...legs are attached at the four corners of the main body'' and ``As trainees vets...learn to take dogs apart.'' Funny? Stupid? It depends: some will find this labored and boring; others-- particularly young ones--should find it hilarious, especially the spritely, cartoon-style illustrations detailing the bizarre workings of the canine's fantastical innards. De gustibus. (Fiction. 6-9) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 3-5. Defining a dog as a "four-legged animal that eats, sleeps, runs around, and smells when wet" and whose ears "can hear food from half a mile away, but cannot hear `NO' from three feet," Snow speaks with a sarcasm born of love. Humorous pen-and-ink art and tidy, hand-printed type diagram a canine's inner workings to resemble a mad scientist's laboratory: funnels, gears, cogs, bolts, tubing, and switches are held together by string and luck and operated by little dogs within the big one. Equipped with a table of contents and an index to further mimic scholarly resources, this spoof of how-to-understand-and-manage-a-dog manuals will bring laughs of understanding to dog lovers, young and old. Ellen Mandel