UP Dog! and UP CAT! <small>by Hazel Hutchins</small>

Board book: 26 pages
Publisher: Annick Press (January 19, 2012)
ISBN-10: 155451388X

Up Dog and Up Cat are two new books from HJ (Hazel) Hutchins. They came out in January of 2012 and comprise a sort of set, in that both books focus on the many uses of the word 'up', as well as image driven stories that show two frisky pets making a mess, getting put into a sort of timeout while their fur-parent cleans up after them.

The pup, for example, digs holes and chews up things he/she shouldn't. The kitten, on the other hand, leaps up on a chair and attacks a ball of yarn. Here's some sample text from several pages from both books.

(cat)
toss up
bat up
tear up
rip up

(dog)
drag up
muddy up
mess up
chew up

while the people
gather up
wash up
... snuggle up

I would use these books in two ways. The first would be to reinforce the notion to toddlers that after it's playtime, that it's time to clean up. The second way would be as a reading aid. Every time we read to very young children we should be pointing at the words on the page, helping them to connect the sounds we make to the symbols we point at. And with such short sentences --mostly 2 and 3 words long-- this is good practice material and they should be able to 'pretend to read' in no time.

If you want to check out only one, get UP CAT. It's definitely the better of the two.

Pam T
Somewhere in the X-burbs

Up Cat