Review: Great Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 25, 2013
This is a delightful tale about an abused puppy who is rescued by the son of a somewhat unconventional vet.  Henry Ashton, the vet, has been deeply interested in genetic engineering for some time and is hoping to find an animal to place a human voice box in; grown from tissue.  When Martin, his son, rescues the puppy from the canal, and they realise the puppy is unable to bark, he becomes the ideal candidate for Henry to 'help'.  I must explain at this point, Henry is no maker of monsters, but genuinely wishes to assist the animal, despite his vested interest.  Henry operates and lo; Mo has a voice box. Hence, we have Mo the talking dog. Mo is very carefully taught his words by the family, and picks up quite a few more from Mimic, the family's African Grey parrot , who also talks, and with whom he watches children's television. Much of their speech is gleaned from this. Needless to say, the Ashton family's life begins to take on a whole new meaning; something they all seem to take very much in their stride. And so the adventure begins.I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is funny, well put together and the characters are well-rounded and extremely likeable; well, most of them anyway. The plot is tight and clever.  It reads just like any good old adventure story, which will have children routing for Mo and Martin as the tale rolls on. It's very entertaining and in parts keeps you wondering what on earth will happen next. My only disappointment being, the animal abusers should have been dealt with more severely.This book addresses so many issues; animal abuse, bullying, the ethics of genetic engineering and doing the right thing where others are concerned. All of which are  dealt with in an empathic manner.  I also loved the way Mo talked, and for those who find him hard to understand, you can find 'Mo's Dictionary' at the back of the book. The book cover confused me a little. It is very sweet, but being so simplistic, I was expecting a story for much younger children. In fact, I was delighted when I found it be a chapter book of some reasonable length.I can highly recommend this - whether you are a dog lover or not - and can see more than one generation enjoying it.