There were always a few things holding me back from reading this book. One of those things was that it had characters that were animals. I really tend to dislike books about animals. I don’t like to empathize with animals. Another thing was that it was a child’s book.
This books is really not bad, even for someone like me. The chapters are short but entertaining. The plot is obviously going somewhere, although it is not easy to see from the beginning. There is excellent description of all things and interesting dialogue between the characters. It’s really quite well done for a child’s book.
Here is one drawback to this book. This book was written a really long time ago. And this book assumes that people of different races dress differently, have a different culture, etc. I haven’t been offended or anything, but it is very apparent and quite surprising. If I were going to read this to a child, I would hope there is a newer, more politically correct version. Or I would re-edit it myself.
This book won a Newberry Award in the 1920′s, and it is well deserved even today. Read it.
On a side note, as you can see I am blogging about another book I have liked. Well, just so you know, there are books that I don’t like. They just take me longer to read. Speaking of books that I don’t enjoy, today I have plunged into Shroud of the Thwacker. This book has been our book club book selection for about the last 6 months because no one has the will to read it. (Except for Andy who has been done for so long he probably doesn’t even remember it). We need to schedule another book club and choose a new book if nothing else.
Tags: books, dr doolittle, reading