The First Dog

by Jan Brett, Jan Brett (Illustrator)

Overview

Kip the Cave Boy offers to share all his woolly rhino ribs if Paleowolf will use his keen nose, fine ears, and sharp eyes to keep Kip from being eaten up. When Paleowolf agrees with a bark and a wag of his tail, Kip names his new friend Dog.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780152276515
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/17/1992
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	309,908
Product dimensions:	9.38(w) x 10.88(h) x (d)
Lexile:	AD660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

With more than thirty million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation’s foremost author/illustrators of children’s books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.

With more than thirty million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation’s foremost author/illustrators of children’s books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

A nice bit of imagining.”—The New Yorker
“Jan Brett’s outstanding art is the best ever....Wonderfully detailed mammoths and cave bears populate Brett’s now-famous borders on each lovely page.”—L.A. Parent
“Unquestionably spectacular...breathtaking.”—The Christian Science Monitor
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From the Publisher

Brett, author/illustrator of such favorites as Annie and the Wild Animals, has turned to prehistoric territory for her newest book. Kip the cave boy is on his way home with only a bag of Woollystet upper case, in book Rhino bones and his wits to protect him from the dangerous beasts of Ice Age Europe. At his first rest-stop a Paleowolf appears, to beg for food. Kip gives the wolf nothing and teases him, but each time Kip stops to eat, one of the wolf's keen senses -- hearing, smell, eyesight -- saves him from an approaching animal, including the much-feared Saber-Toothed Cat. When both are safe but hungry, Kip makes a promise to Wolf: he will supply food, if Wolf will supply protection -- and Wolf wags his tail to become the first dog. With folksy cadences and repetitions, this seems written to be read aloud. The illustrations are bright, with vivid details that richly evoke the possible landscapes of a prehistoric era; this is an appealing story of the way things might have been. Ages 4-8.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

(Pre S - Gr. 1) A simple, imaginative tale of how the first domestication of a wild animal may have occurred. Kip, a cave boy living at the end of the Ice Age, is followed on his journey home by a Paleowolf, who, smelling the boy's roasted Woolly Rhino bones, begs for a treat. Each time the boy stops to rest and eat, the wolf hound senses danger and flees, saving the boy's life, too. After Paleowolf warns him of a fearsome Saber-Toothed Cat, the boy makes a deal with him -- he will exchange some of his food for the animal's protective senses. The book's glorious watercolor illustrations will attract young prehistory enthusiasts, for amidst the melting ice floes roam the mighty Mammoth, the Wild Horse, the Woolly Rhino and other denizens of the Pleistocene period. Each scene appears on a "canvas'' stretched across two pages. Borders show wood and stone carvings, cave paintings, and artifacts. Side panels on several illustrations show the dangers that Kip avoids by heeding Paleowolf's warnings. This is another of Brett's lavish offerings, intricately designed and filled with eye-catching detail. However, it is a fabricated story told with authority, featuring a modern-looking boy amidst authentic-looking animals and scenery. Children familiar with the ever-growing body of factual material on this period may accept it as the truth, despite its accompanying notes. --Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, Ohio

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