I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nothing about this really drew me in. I sort of liked the style of the pictures, sort of old school and not too flashy. But, the story had way too many errors to be anything I would want to purchase.

Lulu and Her New Best Friend is a sweet story of how a little girl found and helped a lost dog. As the two worked together to located the dog's owner, they fall more and more in love with each other. Lulu goes as far as naming her new friend, Buttercup.

After a while, the two manage to locate Buttercup's original owner. The two are heartbroken at the thought of having to say goodbye to each other. The old man recognizes the love the two share for each other, and he asks Lulu to take care of his beloved dog. He has grown too old to care for her.

I read Lulu and Her New Best Friend by JoAnn M. Dickinson with my two grandchildren. They loved Buttercup. They have a large dog of their own and I think that might be one of the reasons. They were sad when they thought Buttercup was lost. My grandson said that he would be sad if Bassie got lost. He liked that Lulu took care of Buttercup and tried to find the owner instead of just keeping the dog. He liked that the older man who owned Buttercup said he couldn't take care of her anymore and gave her to Lulu. I liked the illustrations. They were well done, with large figures and nice colours. I had a couple of issues with this story. The rhyming patterns were not smooth and trying to read it aloud caused some stumbling. Also, I was a bit concerned that Lulu now has a dog yet her parents were not asked if she could keep Buttercup. There were some changes in POV in the story, but the children this is geared to would not notice that. Overall, this is a sweet story with a happy ending. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book upon request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

Great artwork and original drawing style. Rhyming seems a little forced at time, theres also some really weird phrasing? Book itself wasnt bad overall but definitely kinda odd.

Lulu and her mom goes to the park and are playing hide and go seek when Lulu discovers a cold, wet, collarless dog hiding in her favourite bush. She and her mom hurry off with the dog to try and find its owner.

Lulu takes all the responsibility of being a pet owner thereafter. She and a friend bathe the dog, feeds her, and the lucky canine gets to sleep curled up on Lulu's bed that night. Early the next morning the dog is sporting a collar and leash and off the two go to try and find her real owner.

Will she be successful? After asking many merchants in her town if they recognize this dog she finally is directed to an elderly man sitting alone on a park bench. She discovers that the man's name is Mr. Kurt and he confesses that he is the owner. She finds out that the dog's name is Buttercup.

" Mr. Kurt said, "I am getting too old to care for Buttercup. She is too big and all grown up."

He realizes that the two are a good match and he surrenders his dog to Lulu and allows her to take Buttercup home. Lulu is over-the-moon happy with his decision and runs off with skip and a jump to tell her mom the good news. They become inseparable and live a happy life together!

I must confess that I have very mixed feelings about this book. It starts out with a loving and close relationship between a mom and her daughter. Lulu, after discovering the stray dog, seems to take charge and makes all the upcoming decisions about the fate of the pooch all on her own. Having a pet means a huge shift in family dynamics and everyone in the family should be part of that decision. She never goes and asks her mom if it's okay to keep the dog she accepts him.

I also feel bad for Mr. Kurt. I wish the author could have included him somehow in the happiness and joy. Perhaps he could have had some visiting rights to see Buttercup and in so doing connect with this loving family himself. He is left abandoned in the park sitting all alone and wiping away tears from his eyes while Lulu happily tears off with her new BFF which used to be his dog. It would have been wonderful if Mom had brought Lulu back to verify if it truly is alright for Buttercup to come and live with them.

The illustrations are lovely and certainly enrich the text but the rhyming is awkward and doesn't flow properly. Some ideas are disjointed in places: Lulu discovers the dog in her favourite bush in the park while playing her game and then on the next page the dog is laying on the grass beside a frog which had nothing to do with anything except dog rhymes with frog. Maybe it's just me but I feel a much stronger message could have been portrayed making the book more heart-warming and inspiring. Lulu and her mom could have reached out to a lonely, forgotten elderly man and included him too then it would have been a happily ever after for all involved.

What a charming story this is with its message to the young reader of doing the right thing and a need to take care of other others both animal and human. Set in what appears to be an idyllic small coastal town where all the shopkeepers are so friendly and everyone has a sense of civic responsibility we find young Lulu with her mother playing hide and seek in the park. Here Lulu discovers Buttercup a large dog without apparently an owner who is wet and cold. Taking responsibility we see how Lulu cares for Buttercup at her home by feeding her and getting her warm.

There then begins the search in the town for the owner which leads to a quite heart wrenching but also life affirming finale which has the message that if you take care and look out for others you may achieve a better life and be rewarded. With illustrations that are quaint and rhyming that is a bit hit and miss this is a story that will I'm sure both entertain and also provide some educational guidance.

I read Lulu and Her New Best Friend by JoAnn M. Dickinson with my two granddaughters. Both enjoyed the story especially the dog, Buttercup. The four year old liked how Lulu took care of Buttercup instead of expecting her parents to do so. My seven year old enjoyed being able to read the story to us. She is a rising second grader, who found the story to be just long enough and challenging enough for her to find interesting. Her favorite part was when the older gentleman admitted Buttercup was too much for him. He could have kept the dog anyway or surrender it to the local animal shelter so she was glad f his decision.

The illustrations were wonderfully done, fitting well with the text. There is a change in point of view near the end of the story. I noticed this, thinking that it could be perhaps fixed in future e-book copies. Talking with my oldest granddaughter, it did not stand out to her. She looked back to the beginning, understanding what was said about change in the book. Then she pointed out the dialogue near the end. Because Lulu is talking then she didn’t see the problem. I am saying this because as an educator I understand the criticism of the previous reviews but as for the children readers it does not deter from their enjoyment of the story.

Both girls gave it a five, I took a star off for the point of view change. I would like to say that I personally thought it was a cute story with a serendipity kind of ending.

Very weakly written with different perspectives and improper use of speech. No child talks like this. I'm sorry, I just didn't find it believable.

I've come across some pretty weak self-published books over my years reviewing books. With novels, the problems are a little more understandable; after all, the author may be the only person to have read the book before it went to print. But with picture books--especially where there's a separate illustrator--there's really no excuse for a mistake as big as the one that's in this book. Presumably, the illustrator was given a copy of the story so she could illustrate it. How she and the author managed to miss the glaring issue in the text is something I can't quite figure out.

What's the problem? The book switches point of view. Up until about the 2/3 mark, the book was written in the first person. After that, it was all in the third person! How did nobody notice this?!

The writing itself didn't impress me, anyway. I think the book is supposed to rhyme, but it doesn't in a lot of places (even on the first page). The child's voice is also way off. A child as young as Lulu wouldn't feed the dog and say something like, "I promise you will feel renewed." (For that matter, what adult talks to their dog like that?) To make the rhyme scheme work, the text also uses some weird names (Nanette and Mr. Babette show up... to rhyme with "vet" and "pet", and Girt and Mr. Kurt have to rhyme with "shirt").

The illustrations... Yikes. I don't even know where to begin. At first glance, they look all right. But as the book progresses, there are all sorts of problems with perspective. The dog seems to change size, and at times she's unrealistically large. (In some scenes, given the known average size of the things around her, that dog would be around five feet tall... at the shoulder. It appears to be a golden retriever, so that doesn't even make sense!) Yet, in another scene, the dog's having to stand on her hind legs to reach a counter.

I also don't like how the book ends. It gives children the unrealistic expectation that they'll be able to keep whatever stray dog they happen to find. Mr. Kurt did not look like he wanted to give up his dog. He's probably going to go home and die of a broken heart, because the author stole his dog to give to a little girl for plot purposes. The old man is crying, for goodness sake. And now he's lost the one thing in his life that gave his days meaning? (If he's able-bodied enough to make it to the park, he should be able to care for a dog. The "I'm too old" excuse is just insulting. Plenty of seniors have dogs.)

I'm a dog person, and I love a good dog story. Unfortunately, this isn't it. Even if the text were fixed so that the point of view is consistent, I don't think I'd be a fan of this one.