{"id":2214,"date":"2011-10-05T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T06:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2214"},"modified":"2011-10-05T00:01:52","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T06:01:52","slug":"top-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2214","title":{"rendered":"Top Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a quickie post about a picture book I have totally developed a huge crush on, Stephen Shaskan’s<\/a><\/strong> A Dog Is a Dog<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, released by Chronicle Books this month. <\/p>\n

I’ve got so many other books I want to post about, too, so I’ll be brief, and I’m mostly here this morning to show you some spreads from it anyway. <\/p>\n

This is a winner of a picture book for your youngest of readers or especially for those needing a great story time title for wee audiences, whether in a school or public library or classroom. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“A dog is a dog,” the book opens, no matter how it behaves or where it is … but, wait. A dog is a dog, unless it’s a … CAT. And here our friendly (though sometimes naughty) canine protagonist unzips his impish disguise to reveal he’s really an undercover cat of sorts. <\/p>\n

And it’s in this manner that the book continues, going through quite the<\/em> range of animals (squid, anyone?), keeping young readers guessing — with a rhyming, fluid text and uncluttered, thickly-outlined digital illustrations. And it’s just funny<\/em> is what it is. The dog, especially. He is really a hoot. <\/p>\n

But you can see that for yourself below, since I’ve got some of the art to showcase here. Incidentally, all I know about Shaskan is what the book’s back-flap bio tells me — that he graduated from Rhode Island School of Design<\/a><\/strong>, has worked as an early childhood educator (you can tell, given this child-magnet of a book), and that he has played in four rock bands. Rawk. (His site is fun to visit, too. See?<\/a><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Oh, and I believe this is his picture book debut. Lucky for us readers. <\/p>\n

Enjoy the art. <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

A DOG IS A DOG. Copyright \u00a9 2011 Stephen Shaskan. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Chronicle Books, San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a quickie post about a picture book I have totally developed a huge crush on, Stephen Shaskan’s A Dog Is a Dog, released by Chronicle Books this month. I’ve got so many other books I want to post about, too, so I’ll be brief, and I’m mostly here this morning to show you some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}