Dogs and Cats

Bibliography
Jenkins, Steve. 2007. Dogs and Cats. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 9780618507672.

Plot Summary
A fact filled book about man’s favorite pets – dogs and cats.

Critical Analysis
Steve Jenkins's, Dogs and Cats, stands out with its unique design, content, and illustrations. It’s a flip over book; half book covers dog facts and the other half the readers can flip over to read about cat facts. The illustrations are cut and torn paper collages. According to the authors note, many of the papers were made from hand and they also came from various parts of the world like Egypt and India. Steve Jenkins design and writing style is very appealing to children. He explains how dog breeds are created, how they came to live with humans, how dogs communicate within their breed, and provides some really interesting facts about dogs like, why dogs chase balls, why do dogs eat grass etc. He uses an identical style of providing facts about cats so that readers still have the same continuity from one section to the other and also can compare and contrast facts about cats and dogs. While reading the dog section readers will find teasers at the bottom of the page about cat facts and vice versa that will make the readers curious and want to read more.

This is an excellent informational book that not only informs but will also amuse the young readers.