The Good Dog and the Bad Cat

K-Gr 2—Tako is a good dog who loves adventure and his family, so when a thief starts stealing various items around the house, Tako takes it upon himself to find the culprit. The dog quickly tracks down the suspect, a homeless alley cat, and quickly chases her away. Reluctantly, Tako sees the world through the eyes of the thief, learning to be compassionate for the less fortunate feline. The format is rather interesting; it combines the simple word choice of an advanced easy reader with the quantity of illustrations of a picture book and the length and arching narrative of a junior chapter book. That may limit the potential audience, since this offering's length makes it difficult to use for storytime and it's too visual for a read-aloud. But it will certainly serve as a great bridge between easy readers and beginning chapter books and perhaps as a way for reluctant readers to start using easy readers. Olson's illustrations are soft and childlike, which adds to the empathetic tone of the piece.