Review by Booklist Review
Peters' energetic and educational book follows a child and their dog as together they explore unconditional love and the world of science. Each scientific topic, focused on matter and energy, is expressed through a delightful first-person free-verse poem and a lively, vivid illustration from Bloch that demonstrates movement and fluctuation of energy. Teaching everything from friction during doggy bath time to light, sound, and states of matter from canine and human perspectives, the book offers a fresh take on important concepts, dissected in strange and interesting ways and ultimately using the curious dog as a focal point. Peters concludes with "Dog-Powered Notes" that go into further detail on the concepts mentioned in the book, with more of a literal than artistic slant this time. Covering more physical and tangible concepts as well as the metaphysical existence of a human and their dog in the wide universe, Peters and Bloch take on important educational concepts and, in classic scientific fashion, transform them into something wholly original and interesting.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Westberg's scientific yet silly verse uses a dog's antics to memorably illustrate physics concepts, identified in the table of contents as including energy, force, friction, gravity, inertia, and others. Beginning lines about matter set the tone, introducing the speaker's new pup and the "zillions of wiggly molecules and/ jillions of jiggly atoms" that connect the pair. Later, the titular poem, which tackles the topic of force, chronicles the actions required to walk the pet to and from the vet's ("I push open the clinic's door./ My let's-get-out-of-here dog pulls on her leash"). Literary techniques, including alliteration and assonance, work in service of the book's topics, while shape poems visualize electricity. Bloch's loose pen and ink art features a brown-skinned protagonist as well as a spotted canine that seems to be always on the go. Throughout this fun example of STEAM at work, the likable pair's comic exploits showcase the way science concepts infuse the everyday. Back matter offers definitions. Ages 4--8. (Feb.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3--4--Picture book poetry, stated by a dog-loving young boy, introduces principles of physics in an inventive blend likely to intrigue some adults and probably puzzle some children. Deft blank verse and energetic, comic line drawings follow the daily doings and fun moments of the dark-skinned narrator, his homely white and gray-spotted dog, and pale-skinned Aunty Rosa, with whom they apparently live. The dozen or so physics ideas embedded in 19 poems include inertia, gravity, relative motion, paradox, and more. "My stinky dog/ remembers friction/ when I tell her it's time for a bath./ 'Let's go,' I say, but/ she digs her claws into the carpet./ My stinky dog knows that/ Carpet + Claws = Friction." The pertinent science term is stated below each poem and all the terms are defined briefly with short paragraphs of explanation in the book's concluding "Dog Powered Notes." Quick references in this back matter to the work of Sir Isaac Newton and many scientific ideas seem geared to adults and may be useful teaching prompts. VERDICT The dual thrust should interest fans of Peters's many other books and may invite or challenge pet lovers, as well as readers and teachers of poetry or science.--Margaret Bush
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A dog and a child joyously demonstrate gravity, friction, inertia, and other physical phenomena. With an eye to her STEM-centric theme, Peters outfits her free-verse romps with titular references to physics and parenthetical identifications of relevant topics or principles--so that, for instance, in "Extra Electrons #2 (Electricity)," "My generous dog / gives me electrons / on cool, dry days" by rolling on a carpet until she is "excessively negative" and then bestowing a nose kiss: "Zap!" Likewise, digging claws into a carpet at bathtime and then escaping when soaped and slick demonstrate friction and its lack; zooming down a playground slide shows gravity in action; and if the poet mentions only three stages of matter in "Phase-Crazy Dog" ("My amazing dog / is like a Gas / whenever she chases flies. / She leaps! She jumps! / She's everywhere at once!"), she does hint that there are others in the expansive set of notes on each poem at the end. In exuberantly drawn sketches, Bloch places a hyperactive canine of indeterminate breed and a dark-skinned child of ambiguous gender with a lighter-skinned Aunty Rosa as caregiver amid stars or jagged lines and other indicators of motion or energy flow. The final entry leaves physics behind for a loving "Paradox": "My cosmic dog and I / are just / specks / in outer space," but "we are in the center / of our universe." (This book was reviewed digitally.) Playfulness and pedagogy intertwined. (Picture-book poetry/science. 7-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
