Marcos’ charming children's book My Favourite Animal: Dogs takes a peek at man’s best friend in all her glory. Full of colourful, glossy pictures, young readers will be provided a number of doggie facts from the tallest dog breed, to the types of dogs best suited for certain jobs like police work and service animals, to behaviour and communication. Each little section has a quiz question, and there is a glossary for some of the harder or more unusual words for the 4-8 yr old reading level. I had no idea Irish Wolfhounds are bigger than Great Danes! See, even adults may learn something new. This would be a perfect addition to any school of public library.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Xist Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a simple non-fiction book about dogs for the youngest readers. Not too long, not to complicated. Just right for bedtime or story time.

This non-fiction title would make a nice addition to the public, school or class library collection. It's filled with great photographic illustrations that support the text. Elementary age children interested in dogs can learn and appreciate the facts shared without being overwhelmed by language and details.

“My Favorite Animal: Dogs” had so many cute puppy pictures! I loved them. However, I think that other books about dogs are just as good. Unfortunately, the part at the end explaining “man’s best friend” wasn’t my favorite, either.

This is a nice non-fiction book about dogs for primary children. There are some great photographs illustrating the facts being shared. If a young child tries to read this book alone, they may need some assistance with some of the large words, but overall it is a simple book with some interesting facts. Many young children prefer non-ficion books so this helps to fill that need. I even learned some facts when I read this to my grandson. He enjoyed listening to it and was able to answer the comprehension questions along the way. A nice way to start teaching about research and how to find information about things you are interested in. A great book for a public, school or class library.

With plenty of photos and several questions to test comprehension along the way My Favorite Animal: Dogs is a non-fiction book marketed towards 4 to 8 year olds. Readers will learn some interesting facts about dogs including which are the smallest and largest breeds (measurements are in feet, inches and pounds), how they communicate and how exceptional some of their senses are.

Whether you’re reading this book to a child or whether they’re going it alone they may need a little help with some of the words used. There is a glossary at the end which should help explain more difficult words such as vocalization or threatened.

Did you know that dogs “can hear sounds from four times as far away” as people can? I knew their hearing was better than ours but didn’t realise it was that much better. This is now my favourite dog fact. My family used to joke that our dog knew when our car was several suburbs away because she’d always get up (even if she’d been snoring seconds earlier) and look through the living room blinds at the road five minutes before the car would drive up the road.

The font is suitable for young readers, with nothing swirly to add unnecessary confusion about what each letter is. There are large areas of empty space around most of the text which gave me the impression the layout may not have been finalised. I would have personally been inclined to use a larger font and/or made adjustments to the spacing to address this. Although to be fair I should acknowledge that I used to be responsible for the layout of a community newspaper so I may be looking at this from my editor’s point of view.

Stock photos are used throughout this book and feature a range of breeds. I adored the brown pup with the floppy ears and head wrinkles who’s intrigued by some daisies. I feel bad (sort of) for laughing at the dog being groomed. They seemed to be trying to get the message across to their human with very intense eyes that they never agreed to anyone putting a pink elastic band in their fur.

When I checked out Victoria Marcos’ Goodreads page I discovered that she has written plenty of other My Favorite Animal books, from sharks to groundhogs. This is the sort of book I would have borrowed from my local library to use as a reference for school projects but I don’t think it would have been part of my personal library.

Thank you to NetGalley and Xist Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.