Flawed Dogs: The Year-End Leftovers at the Piddleton Last Chance Dog Pound FROM THE PUBLISHER
Dog fans of all ages will love Flawed Dogs, the annual publication of the fictional "Last Chance" Dog Pound, in the small town of Piddleton, Vermont. Pulitzer Prizewinning Berkeley Breathed, whose books for adults and children have sold a whopping eight million copies, is at the top of his form with his riotous depictions of these imperfect dogs and their original, dissatisfied owners. Berkeley Breathed is a Pulitzer Prizewinning editorial cartoonist. His comic strip, Bloom County, ran for years in newspapers worldwide.
Author Biography: Berkeley Breathed lives and works in Santa Barbara, California and is the proud owner of a gentle pit bull named Ridley, a deaf dachshund named Milly, and a refugee mutt from the Puerto Rican streets named Pilar—splendidly flawed dogs, every one.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In this outwardly glib paper-over-board catalogue of homeless dogs, Breathed (Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big) comments on people's mistreatment of animals. Trouble is, Breathed's flippant satire and visual hyperbole make an odd fit with his devotion to a worthy cause-the book may be best suited to adult dog lovers. According to the introduction, Piddleton, Vt., "Pop. 327 (People: 243)," is home to activist Heidy Str delberg, who once named a "shivering three-legged streetdog" best in show at Westminster and then founded the Last Chance Dog Pound, to give "the doomed and most desperate... a final try at getting adopted into a world that worships perfection." But that's all in the fine print. To a casual browser, the book is a rogue's gallery of unlovely pets. Barney, a tattooed hound, sits sadly at the grave of his departed owner, "Leo `Nardo' Davinski, 1922-2003, Tattooer to the Angels Now." Pepe, a cross-eyed Chihuahua, thinks he's as handsome as Richard Gere. Other charmers are flatulent or stick their heads up their owner's nostrils. Every spread includes a full-page color portrait, opposite which is a black-and-white mug shot picturing the lonely animal in a gray cement cell. The sentimental concluding image, a glowing Pi ta holding a bandaged dog, laments that "Some live without love.../ That's how they're flawed." Despite this pro-adoption plea, none of the unfortunates finds a home, and the vaunted Piddleton shelter (if indeed it is the one pictured) looks as lifeless as a tomb. All ages. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Children's Literature - Kathy Egner, Ph.D.
The Pulitzer-prize-winning creator of the Bloom County and Outland comic strips has teamed up with the Humane Society of the United States to address the problem of pet over-population and to encourage people to adopt pets from their local animal shelters. All the dogs in this book are leftovers in a fictional animal shelter in Piddleton, Vermont, which has a population of 327, of which 243 are people! Each dog has a very definite flaw, ranging from simple ugliness to elaborate tattoos to strange and sometimes disgusting habits. The last page of the book makes it clear that, even though dogs and people are imperfect, the greatest flaw is to live without love. The illustrations are hilarious, and the pithy, humorous rhymes accompanying each of the flawed dogs add to the charm of the book. This book is recommended as a consciousness-raising exercise for older children as well as for adults. Most of all, it is simply fun! 2003, Little, Brown and Company, Ages 10 up.
School Library Journal
Gr 2-5-A tongue-in-cheek parade of mongrels, mutts, and generally unadoptable dogs fills this catalog of the Piddleton "Last Chance" Dog Pound in Vermont. The introductory pages present a cast of heavily satirized human characters as well as a brief history of the shelter, "where the doomed and most desperate are sent- for a final try at getting adopted into a world that worships perfection." The following pages each feature a sad sack and often bizarre dog-too colorful, too gassy, too long, too hairy, likes to crawl up people's noses-and a brief rhyming verse that describes its unhappy past. The full-color acrylics are rendered with broad exaggeration, dark and slightly sinister tones, and a rubbery suppleness that tends toward the grotesque. A note at the end encourages readers to adopt at local shelters. Adults will best appreciate the satire though older children may enjoy the goofy humor and outrageousness of the poor unwanted pooches featured here.-Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha's Public Library, WI Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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