Martha Walks the Dog

Martha Walks the Dog

Susan Meddaugh

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 1998

Pages: 32

Reading Level: 4-8

Genre: Picture Book

Martha is a dog who learned to talk one day when she was eating alphabet soup. The letters went up to her brain instead of her stomach. One day while Martha is taking a walk, she walks past a house with a sign that says "Beware of Dog." Martha is curious, so she walks up to the house. A huge dog runs at her and starts barking like crazy. A man runs out and yells "Bad Dog Bob!" Many times. The dog is just very angry. Martha is walking home when she passes an open window with a parrot inside. Martha, just for fun, teaches the parrot to say nice things like "good dog." A few days later, Martha sees her friend the poodle wander into Bob's yard. Martha doesn't want the poodle to get hurt, so she starts yelling mean things at Bob to get his attention. It works and Bob runs at her. Martha then realizes that Bob's chain is broken, and that he is coming for her. Martha runs and runs and runs. Finally she hides under a bush at the parrots house. Right when Bob gets to her, Martha hear's the parrot say "Good dog!" Bob stops...and smiles. Bob's owner comes and notices how happy Bob is, and tells him he is a good dog. Martha realizes that saying nice things to people makes them happy.

I would recommend this book to all young children. I think that it teaches an important life lesson about not calling people mean things.

Problems: I can't think of any problems this book would cause.

My reaction: This book is okay. I liked the original Martha book much more.

My rating: ***