First Dog's White House Christmas
PreS-Gr 1–Having altered the official invitation to the Christmas Gala in order to ensure that his counterparts from all over the world will attend, the canine star of First Dog (Sleeping Bear, 2009) greets his guests. He shows them the White House, and learns about Christmas traditions and legends from Australia to Turkey to Mexico. The effect is didactic, as one pup after another reels off a little speech, but the tone is upbeat and the illustrations are charming, if a tad stiff. The best scenes involve the pooch's daily life romping about the White House. “Dog,” a Portuguese water dog, is clearly meant to be Bo, and readers occasionally see the legs of the First Family and an arm that they can surmise to be the First Lady's shooing him away from her vegetable garden.Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library© Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.