31-33. Service Pups in Training, 3 Books

31. Tucker's Nose Knows: An Allergen Detection Dog Graphic Novel. Mari Bolte. Illustrated by Diego Vaisberg. 2023. 29 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Tucker is a poodle training to become an allergen detection dog. Poodles are considered to be hypoallergenic. That means they are less likely to cause allergic reactions.

Premise/plot: What you see is what you get. A puppy is in training to be a service dog. In this instance, it is Tucker who is the star. Tucker is learning to isolate out specific scents and give alerts when the allergen is detected. Apparently, Tucker learns different scents on different days of his training. This specific day he is on the scent for gluten. The story is told in comic book form. There are speech bubbles for dialogue.

My thoughts: I hope training is taken more seriously in real life. Each book focuses on puppies in training--but they are all classmates and friends. The training aspects seem a little unrealistic, not that there aren't dogs trained for allergen detection, just the method and process seems a little sketchy. 

The book is a meh for me. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. The artwork wasn't super amazing quality. 

32. Daphne Shows Support: An Emotional Support Dog Graphic Novel. Mari Bolte. Illustrated by Alan Brown. 2023. 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Daphne is a shih tzu puppy. She may be small, but she has a huge heart! She wants to help everyone, and the best way to do that is as an emotional support dog.

Premise/plot: What you see is what you get. A puppy is in training to be a service dog. In this instance, Daphne is the star. Daphne is learning to be an emotional support dog. 

My thoughts: Will readers learn about how emotional support dogs are really trained? I doubt it. I am so skeptical of the methods and processes being depicted. Again just personal opinion. The message of this one is that you have to take care of your own needs first. That is, the dog, Daphne, must take care of her own emotional needs first before she can be good at her own job in helping others. Most of the book just has ALL the puppies (each being trained in their own specialty apparently) doing an agility course and there is a "celebrity" dog. The plot of this one is just weird.

33. Rossi Guides the Way: A Guide Dog Graphic Novel. Mari Bolte. Illustrated by Alan Brown. 2023. 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Rossi is a yellow lab puppy. He's training to be a service dog like his great-grandma, Roselle. She's his hero.

Premise/plot: What you see is what you get. A puppy is in training to be a service dog. In this instance, Rossi is learning to be a guide dog. Rossi doesn't have a great training day and gives up--or wants to give up. Will Rossi be encouraged by Daphne to keep trying?

My thoughts: Readers may be more familiar with the concept of guide dogs. This one does focus more on teaching lessons to humans on how to human than it does provide information on how dogs are trained to be service dogs. The series [all three books] seem to have this didactic nature to them. This one is about how everyone makes mistakes and that's okay.

© 2024 Becky Laney of Young Readers