This picture book is amazing and adorable. It's an ABC book and it rhymes. It chronicles a family's adventure at a pride parade. The puppy is totally mischievous and causes some trouble. In the end, the story is about love and pride. My favorite part of this book - each page has a scavenger hunt for other elements that start with its letter. This added depth to the picture book.
Recommended for elementary students, parents and educators.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Fun and colorful illustrations, beautiful message!

I loved the book, but I feel there was a missed opportunity to write an ABC book that was more LGBTQ+. While the illustrations were full of pride, the actual letters were just normal everyday examples. If the pictures weren’t specifically inclusive, this could have been just another ABCs book.

Pride Puppy is a bright-and-cheery rhyming book about a family that (temporarily) loses track of their puppy during a Pride celebration. The dog’s short solo adventure is really a small plot point in what is mostly an alphabet book marked by beautifully diverse illustrations and fun seek-and-find objects hidden on every page.

This is a joyful book that celebrates the beauty and value of all people. A colorful sign on the page for the letter I declares “the future is Intersectional” and I love how the illustrations in Pride Puppy beautifully reflect that truth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orca Book Publishers for an advanced reader copy of this book for review.

Title: Pride Puppy
Author: Robin Stevenson
Illustrator: Julie McLaughlin
Genre: Children’s Book
Pages: 24
Publication Date: 5/11/2021

I don’t normally review children’s books but the cover of this one caught my eye. I’m a sucker for a rainbow! This book is targeted at children between 3 and 5. The basic premise is that a family goes to a Pride Parade. Their puppy gets separated from them and sees all the different groups at the parade. It is an alphabet book.

I absolutely loved this book. I am planning to give it to every small person in my life and any “future” small people. The illustrations are so colorful, captivating, and inclusive. The book also includes a find the object for each letter for more fun.

I also feel like this book is age-appropriate. The gender of the parents is not discussed nor is sexuality – it is just presented as-is. The book focuses on a family going to a parade and the dog gets lost. Parents may recognize the various Pride flags and groups at the parade – but the book is not about them and does not dive into those issues.

I would highly recommend buying this for any small people in your life that are between 3-5 or to expecting parents! It’s a beautiful book.

ARC provided to me by Orca Book Publishers, via Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review.

#PridePuppy #NetGalley #ownvoices

4/5 stars

Genre: Children's

Description:

A young child and their family are having a wonderful time together celebrating Pride Day—meeting up with Grandma, making new friends and eating ice cream. But then something terrible happens: their dog gets lost in the parade! Luckily, there are lots of people around to help reunite the pup with his family.

This rhyming alphabet book tells a lively story, with rich, colorful illustrations that will have readers poring over every detail as they spot items starting with each of the letters of the alphabet. An affirming and inclusive book that offers a joyful glimpse of a Pride parade and the vibrant community that celebrates this day each year.

Pros:

- Great illustrations!
- Great way to talk to your little ones about the LBGTQIA+ Community!
- Pictures kept my bonus daughter engaged but she couldn't read the book herself because of formatting.

Cons:

- I don't know if it was just a glitch or something but the formatting of the book on the Kindle App was really wonky and a bit hard to read at times.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, but in the print version, not the Kindle.

This book is just lovely! The rhyme scheme has a nice cadence to it and the illustrations are so bright and fun! I didn't expect it to be an alphabet book but it definitely works and encourages readers to look closer at the pictures to find all of the "Easter eggs" that start with the letter on each page. I love the pure celebration of queer people and culture and I am excited to share this with my students!

The creator of “Pride Colors” does it again! This ABC rhyming book is centered around misadventures at a Pride parade. It’s absolutely charming and broadly inclusive: from a variety of Pride flags waving to drag queens joyously performing to families just plain enjoying the parade, Pride Puppy features unapologetically diverse illustrations and charmingly playful text. Highly recommended. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Absolutely beautiful illustrations full of color! I love how it incorporates the ABC’s and diversity. The only downside wasn’t really about the puppy, otherwise it was a cute book and would definitely recommend.

The pictures in this book are really cute. I love the contemporary graphics and colors. I didn't feel like the dog was really the focus of the story, which was really disappointing. I guess I'd want the dog to be more integrated with the alphabet pieces highlighted for it to really be an enticing book. There's not really anything wrong with this book, but I'm personally not very excited by it.

P is for "Pride Puppy!" Written by Robin Stevenson and illustrated by Julie McLaughlin, this rhyming alphabet book is a rollicking run through a day at a Pride Parade. A family celebrating Pride Day at the parade loses and eventually finds their dog, encountering many different people and activities.

The blurb included in the ARC describes the illustrations as "busy, bright, and dynamic," and they certainly are. The artistic style will appeal to young children, as will the rhyming cadence. The book is decidedly queer-centric, and the blurb also states that the family is purposely non-gendered.

This is a great introduction for young readers to the LGBTQ+ community, and I recommend it.

I received an advance copy from NetGalley and Orca Book Publishers in exchange for my honest review.

This children’s book is so fantastic, I’m going to rave about it to all my fellow parent friends.
What I loved:
-The book is done in rhyme.
-the book centers around the alphabet, but WHats even better is that on each page there Is plenty to point out that starts with the particular letter. That’s such a great way to engage preschool learners!
-this book is VERY inclusive, diverse, and intersectional
-my favorite part was actually the signs, because they said things like “The future is intersectional“, “Marsha p Johnson” and one brought up Two-Spirit people which is so incredibly important. These can open further conversation for older kids who will understand

Absolutely fantastic book for families of all types.

great alphabet book, great diversity in the illustrations. Very intersectional for wages, disabilities and races, gender and orientation. I somehow expected it to be more puppy-ish though

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

Puppies and rainbows - what more could you want in a picture book? A fun alphabet book that celebrates love and tells the story of a lost - and found again - dog.

This is a lovely little alphabet book, but it is the illustrations that really make it special. It is clear that the illustrator took care to be as inclusive as possible, showing countless different ways that people exist in queer communities. And it is a book that is about showing the community more than any individual's identity. There are, of course, lots of rainbow flags at this depiction of a Pride celebration (both the 6-color version and the version that includes black and brown), but I also saw flags recognizing transgender, asexual, intersex, bisexual, gender fluid, two-spirit, and pansexual, but I know I missed some. There is a broad representation of race, ethnicity, able-bodiedness, body types, and ages.

It's charming and inclusive and I would recommend it.

When I first picked up Robin Stevenson and illustrator Julie McLaughlin's <em>Pride Puppy</em>, I admittedly wasn't expecting an alphabet book. I was, however, very excited for the premise. Basically, the family puppy escapes while they're out for Pride and everyone around does their best to help him find his way home. Honestly, this is a beautiful book on that theme alone.

<b>It Gets Better</b>

I loved every second of <em>Pride Puppy!</em> From the diverse illustrations to the masterful and lyrical language. You can almost hear the song of it all as you're reading. Robin Stevenson definitely knew what she was doing with this book. I'll be honest, I can't think of a single thing to criticize about it. I just loved this book, plain and simple.

The characters have personality and emotions all throughout. You get a genuine story from start to finish. It's a <em>fun</em> read. And of course, there are the clear emotional moments in the background that touch on what it's like to lose your dog. But it didn't ever really take away from the excitement of the book. I think, as readers, you know without a doubt that those tears are going to disappear soon as pup is sure to be found.

And then there's that word list search at the end, basically sending you back through the book once again to find all the illustrations you, no doubt, missed in your first read. It starts with A, listing things like alligator (a toy you can find on the A page). This was such a simple and brilliant thing to include. I'm honestly just in awe.

<b>Puppy!</b>

And oh my goodness, that artwork. It was <em>so </em>beautiful, <em>so</em> colorful<em>, so </em>exciting! I don't think you could really turn a single page without your eyes being drawn to something utterly dazzling. I think the colors are what shines the most, of course. For children's books, colors are <em>so </em>important. Those are the things that are going to keep the littles engaged with a book. I don't think anyone will have trouble introducing this one to their kids.

The puppy is adorable, the characters are all so incredibly unique. I mentioned above that they all very clearly have personality and a lot of that is due to the exquisite artwork. I mean, this is an alphabet book and there's only so much that's told through the alphabet. You experience so much more when you include the artwork. Of course, I don't think the artwork would be as impactful without the language, either.

This story just flows so well together.

<b>Pride</b>

I think it's safe to say that this puppy has pride. How about you?

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

I absolutely loved this book! The pictures fell so much of the story and there is a lot to infer that is not explicitly stated in the story. I loved how the dog was in every page and was the main focus. Great book for young readers.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

Holy cow the diversity in this, amazing. If you can’t tell by the cover, the main focus is pride and the idea of being inclusive. The best part of this book is the illustrations, McLaughlin did an AMAZING job. Every single page is incredibly detailed with so many different characters that I spent a majority of the time “reading” the book just looking at the pictures. In addition to the LGBTQ+ reputation, I noticed several different cultural representations. There were just SO many people included in the illustrations that I’m pretty sure that, besides our main family, none of the characters were actually repeated. The images are super bright and colorful. If you’re not one to enjoy a “busy” picture you may not enjoy them as much. One thing I realized while reading this book was that McLaughlin included characters that had tattoos. I don’t know if I’ve ever really read any books that put tattoos on the adult characters, it just added to the uniqueness of every character.

Okay so now that I’ve gushed about the images, what about the writing? So this is a rhyming alphabet book that also tells the story of a dog getting lost. Personally, I didn’t think it was really necessary to have the dog bit added into the story. I was having a hard time focusing on the “story” because most of my attention was on the images because they were so busy. Only 4-5 of the pages actually talked about the missing dog and it was in a roundabout way because of the alphabet style that was used. It did also seem like some of the rhymes were forced.

I especially liked that at the end the author and illustrator included a search and find word list. Each letter of the alphabet had a list of words that started with that letter that you then go back and look for in the pictures. It’s a really great idea and helps you take a deeper look at the illustrations. I would almost prefer to use this solely as a search and find.

Overall I really liked this book for the diversity it brought. I think this would be a great book to help introduce the idea of pride and the LGBTQ+ community. I’m super happy to see these kinds of books and it’s one I would have loved to look at when I was younger.

**review will be posted on blog closer to publishing date**

Love the concept of telling a story through an ABC book; makes the book appealing to older kids as well. And the artwork is bright and gorgeous.

I loved this book because while it was set at a pride parade, and obviously is incredibly inclusive in drawings and text, the story itself is about a lost puppy and the havoc he wreaks. I think we are getting to the point where we don’t need “g is for gay and b is for bisexual” books, at least not ONLY those, we can also have this. A silly abc story about a puppy with a wide cast of diverse and inclusive characters.