Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Books About Dogs and Books, and Books About Books


"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Mark Twain

So what happens inside a dog picture book that's about dogs and books (and one that isn't)? Let's find out, shall we?

Our fabulous children's buyer, Amie, noticed an uncanny connection between several new children's picture books that were coming out around the same time and after checking them out, fell in love with all three. They are spritely illustrated, sweet, and clever. Plus with morals more related to today's "demise of print" soothsaying than to fables of yore, they also make perfect gifts for adult readers. Oh, and all three are currently 20% off, too.


Dog Loves Books
written and illustrated by Louise Yates
was $16.99, currently $13.59

An enterprising biblio-dog loves everything about books and decides it's high time he open his own bookstore.

The problem is that even with all his preparation and excitement, the customers are not flooding in - in fact, there aren't any at all.

Wait, what's this? A lady comes in, but. . . oh, wait. . . she's just wanting a cup of tea.

A long, quiet interlude and, oh! Look! A man comes in and asks for. . . directions.

Whatever will Dog do? Lucky for him, he's surrounded by books and can while away the time embarking on adventures and making new friends. And Dog is happily ensconced in his reading when. . . a customer comes in to ask for. . .*

(This book is so true to what life in a bookstore is like, it had all us booksellers in stitches. For more, check out Daniel's related post)


written and illustrated by Tad Hills
was $17.99, currently $14.39

From the delightful mind of Duck & Goose comes the tale of an adorable little fuzzy canine (who I want to take home right this second) who stumbles upon a little yellow bird. When this bird starts reading aloud from a book, the story becomes more and more suspenseful until right before the big reveal and - the bird disappears.

Rocket is frantic to find out how the story ends but the bird is nowhere to be found! The next day, the bird reappears and begins to teach Rocket to read so he can discover for himself the ending. As Rocket learns how to read, he begins to see his world in a whole new way.


And finally, last but most definitely not least, is the new, hilarious bookseller favorite:

It's a Book
written and illustrated by Lane Smith**
was $12.99, currently $10.39

A donkey, aka a jackass, takes a seat by a monkey with a strange device.

The jackass, curious as he is, inquires after it: "What do you have there?" The monkey replies matter-of-fact, "It's a book."

The jackass inquires further, "How do you scroll down?"
"I don't. I turn the page. It's a book."


But the jackass is still confused:
"Can it text? Blog? Scroll? Wi-Fi? Tweet?"

The answer, of course, everyone together now, is:

"No...it's a book."




*(to hear the rest of this story, you'll have to come buy the book!)
**Check out Lane Smith's delightful book trailer as well as a blog post on how the book came to be.