Official Review: Diary of an Airedale by P. J. Erickson
-
JessiAnne26
- Posts: 137
- Joined: 29 Apr 2014, 15:52
- Currently Reading: A Novel Bookstore
- Bookshelf Size: 15
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-jessianne26.html
- Latest Review: "Positive Thinking Positive Life: The Mindset" by Phil Hunter
Official Review: Diary of an Airedale by P. J. Erickson
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Diary of an Airedale" by P. J. Erickson.]
Share This Review
Diary of an Airedale written by PJ Erickson is an adorable concept for a book. I found this novella to be extremely charming and often educational. I found that during and after having read this book I feel more connected to my own adorable puppy and eager to remedy a lot of the challenges the main character of this particular book faces, for my own dog. All in all I would give this book a 3 out of 4 star rating and I would recommend it to my friends who all have and love their own dogs.
The book follows the tale of a nine-week-old puppy named Alf. Alf lives with his litter and a lady named Diane who takes care of him and all of his brothers and sisters. Alf Chronicles about the difficulties of being the runt of the litter but always has a positive demeanor about his situation in life. Alf discovers eventually that he will not be living with his brothers and sisters forever and is greatly dismayed by this fact though his mother does her best to comfort the poor pup. Eventually Alf is adopted into a new loving home with a very nice seeming couple and he keeps an up to date diary of everything that happens with his new human pack leaders. He is sure to tell the audience about all of the interesting, painful, fun, and playful mischief he gets into along the way.He accounts for trips to the dog store, trips to the vet, Christmas parties, dog parks and all the delicious food we humans are too eager to give sweet little puppies.
What I like about this particular narrative is that it definitely has the right tone of voice to it. Every day that I read it I thought of my own two year old pups enthusiasm for all things and could picture Alf in all his Airedale glory. I liked that I learned a lot from this book as well. I learned things such as other people (fictitious dog owners even) feed their dogs lots of human food, and as suspected puppies love human food way more than kibble. It is very easy to frighten and hurt a young puppy. Their paws are sensitive and their noses smell so much more than our human noses do. Reading this book made me feel like it was a book I could share with a small child to teach them things about puppies. For instance, (if the child doesn’t understand already) in one of the his diary entries Alf talks about having two mean little boys pull at his tail when he’s very little, and a young audience may learn to be more empathetic, understanding that hurts puppies from a puppies point of view. Suffice it to say when the time comes and I do try and have my own litter I will probably read this book to them when I feel they are old enough to understand. It’s helpful it's written so innocently and sweetly that I think it could be a really great tool to teach children about puppy habits.
What I would have liked to see was more of a beginning middle end sequence for this novel. I get that diaries are very personal and day to day so there's not really any great moral to the story but I’m traditional in liking things a certain way. Alf has a lot of little sweet mini adventures but I think that's what makes this book better suited for small children as a teaching tool instead of a novella for adults. All in all even with the lack of a climax or any real suspense this book was well worth my time, and like I said earlier I’d be happy to share it with a small child or a friend who owns a dog and wants a quirky read.
The best reason to recommend this book for me would be to recommend it to an adult trying to teach a small child the importance of understanding that puppies have feelings, physical mental and emotional just like we humans do. I sincerely hope that whomever reads this book does get a few educational tidbits out of it and pays more attention to their pups needs and desires after reading it like I did. I appreciate having read this book and am glad that I will be able to reference it one day when I do have children. Thank you for this work.
***
Buy "Diary of an Airedale" on Amazon
Buy "Diary of an Airedale" on Barnes and Noble
Share This Review
The book follows the tale of a nine-week-old puppy named Alf. Alf lives with his litter and a lady named Diane who takes care of him and all of his brothers and sisters. Alf Chronicles about the difficulties of being the runt of the litter but always has a positive demeanor about his situation in life. Alf discovers eventually that he will not be living with his brothers and sisters forever and is greatly dismayed by this fact though his mother does her best to comfort the poor pup. Eventually Alf is adopted into a new loving home with a very nice seeming couple and he keeps an up to date diary of everything that happens with his new human pack leaders. He is sure to tell the audience about all of the interesting, painful, fun, and playful mischief he gets into along the way.He accounts for trips to the dog store, trips to the vet, Christmas parties, dog parks and all the delicious food we humans are too eager to give sweet little puppies.
What I like about this particular narrative is that it definitely has the right tone of voice to it. Every day that I read it I thought of my own two year old pups enthusiasm for all things and could picture Alf in all his Airedale glory. I liked that I learned a lot from this book as well. I learned things such as other people (fictitious dog owners even) feed their dogs lots of human food, and as suspected puppies love human food way more than kibble. It is very easy to frighten and hurt a young puppy. Their paws are sensitive and their noses smell so much more than our human noses do. Reading this book made me feel like it was a book I could share with a small child to teach them things about puppies. For instance, (if the child doesn’t understand already) in one of the his diary entries Alf talks about having two mean little boys pull at his tail when he’s very little, and a young audience may learn to be more empathetic, understanding that hurts puppies from a puppies point of view. Suffice it to say when the time comes and I do try and have my own litter I will probably read this book to them when I feel they are old enough to understand. It’s helpful it's written so innocently and sweetly that I think it could be a really great tool to teach children about puppy habits.
What I would have liked to see was more of a beginning middle end sequence for this novel. I get that diaries are very personal and day to day so there's not really any great moral to the story but I’m traditional in liking things a certain way. Alf has a lot of little sweet mini adventures but I think that's what makes this book better suited for small children as a teaching tool instead of a novella for adults. All in all even with the lack of a climax or any real suspense this book was well worth my time, and like I said earlier I’d be happy to share it with a small child or a friend who owns a dog and wants a quirky read.
The best reason to recommend this book for me would be to recommend it to an adult trying to teach a small child the importance of understanding that puppies have feelings, physical mental and emotional just like we humans do. I sincerely hope that whomever reads this book does get a few educational tidbits out of it and pays more attention to their pups needs and desires after reading it like I did. I appreciate having read this book and am glad that I will be able to reference it one day when I do have children. Thank you for this work.
***
Buy "Diary of an Airedale" on Amazon
Buy "Diary of an Airedale" on Barnes and Noble
Latest Review: "Positive Thinking Positive Life: The Mindset" by Phil Hunter
