Spring. 2009. Tuscan countryside in Italy. The dachshund obsession began. Our next door neighbour on our family trip through Italy owned a little, black sausage dog who fell in love with my dad. She would pop over at random times, sneak through our open villa door and jump up onto my dad's lap. They were inseparable until the day our trip moved onto the next town and my dad and Lisa (the dachshund) had to part ways. When we came home from our trip abroad my dad then decided we needed a Lisa of our own and so we bought our first dog - Monte (long haired dachshund...ridiculously spoilt). I would like to add in at this point that my dad swore NEVER to get a dog...we now have two. From my own experiences, once you own a dachshund (or two) you immediately seek out dachshund related items. It's subconscious most of the time. It's like an inbuilt dachshund radar. You then find yourself purchasing dachshund stationary, "youtubing" cute dachshund videos, receiving witty sausage dog cards on birthdays and wearing doxie printed clothing (thank you Mr Peter Alexander). For me, this obsession extends to literature hence the choice of my next book to blog about. Odd Dog by Claudia Boldt tells the story of Helmut, an old sausage dog with a love of apples, and the sausage dog next door, Igor. I want to start off by saying that I immediately loved this book for two of reasons. 1. The two main characters are dachshunds. 2. The illustrations. Aesthetically pleasing colour palette (clearly biased here as she uses some of my favourite colours) as well as outrageously cute depictions of Helmut and Igor. ...and then I read the book and I fell in love with it even more. In the opening pages of the story we are introduced to Helmut and his rather odd love of apples and hatred of bones. He was rather protective of his apple tree and worried so about about it that he thought Igor, his neighbour, was plotting to steal them. His paranoia acted as an obstacle to get to know Igor and understand that Igor in fact hated apples and loved the traditional bone. This story is rather simply told but embedded with truths that are reflective of our society that is quick to assume and defend. Ending happily with a blossoming sausage dog friendship, this book is fantastic for early readers or for the early years classroom. As an aspiring kindergarten teacher, I am always looking out for texts which I could use in the classroom and I yelled 'Eureka' when I found this little gem. Woven throughout the story are themes such as friendship, greed and sharing which I believe are important concepts to address especially in the classroom. I love this book and I love Claudia Boldt. I am excited to collect more of her books and you can find out more about her if you click http://www.claudiaboldt.com ...you know you want to!
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AuthorBook lover, tea drinker and Primary School teacher. Archives
April 2017
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