Official Review: A Service Dog Life by Kimberly Kiely

[Juliana_Isabella]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Service Dog Life" by Kimberly Kiely.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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A Service Dog Life: From Puppy to Service Animal by Kimberly Kiely is a short children’s book about Jager Von Schatten III, a German Shepherd service dog. The book was written by Jager’s owner, Kimberly, who uses Jager’s help in her everyday life living with a disability. This short chapter book incorporates a narrative about Jager’s life growing up and being trained as a service dog with lessons from his owner about how to interact with service dogs when you see them in public.

I liked how the book was written from Jager’s perspective, showing how he is focused on helping his owner. This created a natural segue for the author to talk about why children shouldn’t try to pet service dogs in public (because they can’t be distracted from their jobs). The lessons in the book manage to be both gentle and firm as the author reminds kids to always ask the handler’s permission before interacting with a service dog.

I also appreciated how this book brought up the idea of invisible disabilities. Jager questions why people ask whose service dog he is. They seem to think that his mommy doesn't need a service dog because she can walk and see. However, as he explains, she has an invisible disability like many people who use service dogs, and this doesn’t make his work any less important for her than it would be for a blind person or one in a wheelchair. Once again, the author used something that actually happens in her life as a lesson for young readers.

Overall, I would rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I really enjoyed the way the lessons were incorporated, but I wish that the author would have had the book professionally edited. I found a variety of grammatical errors in this short book, and I also noticed that the picture of Jager corresponding to a certain part of the story would occasionally be on the next page (with a different part of the story). For example, the picture of Jager holding a pharmacy bag appears on the same page that he talks about going to the vet, while the picture of him at the vet appears on the next page.

I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of children ages 5 to 12. Young children will likely need help with the vocabulary included, but I think it would be great to have a child read this book with an adult so they can discuss the role that service dogs play in our world and how we should interact with them as well as members of the disability community.

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A Service Dog Life
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Josephe-Anne]

This sounds like a lovely book to teach children all about service dogs and the people who need them. I like the fact that the story is told from the Jager's perspective. Hopefully it will be revised to smooth out the errors and improve the layout.

Thanks for an awesome and thorough review!

[gayscott]

Great book! All dogs that are trained to be service dogs are very special, and this book tells why. It's very important for children to understand they are protecting their owner. These animals deserve a special place in heaven. Thanks for the informative review.

[Honey_Lemmon]

"Dog is the best friend of man"
Great book for children as they would learn about the value of friendship by reading such a book.

[Nisha Ward]

This sounds like a good guide to service dogs and what they do. I like that it's from Jager's point of view and that it contains a guide on what not to do with them because service dogs do important jobs and it's good for everyone involved to know this stuff.

[Ogoskino]

Great book that teaches about the importance of service dogs. I think adults and children would find it interesting to learn about.

[gayscott]

All dogs are special but especially ones that are trained as service dogs. This book gives the perspective of the dog and I find this very interesting. I would love to read it