March 1, 2016
Everything looks great when a myopic dog gets glasses. Douglas' poor eyesight interferes with his lifestyle. He chases leaves instead of squirrels, overlooks warning signs, and sometimes even goes "home to the wrong house." After he mistakes a wasps' nest for a ball, Douglas' owner, Nancy (a white girl in a hunting cap with ear flaps), takes him to the eye doctor. Asked to identify symbols on the eye chart, Douglas sees a squirrel as a dinosaur, a cat as a crab, a car as a flying saucer, a bird as a horse, and a leaf as a squirrel. Trying on many pairs of glasses, Douglas finally chooses the perfect ones: "Wow! Everything looks amazing." Perky, humorous illustrations rely on naive pencil outlines, watercolor washes, and cartoonlike characters to portray nearsighted Douglas coping with a world he can't see clearly, punting his way through the eye exam, and adopting different personas to match the glasses he tries on. The double-page spread showing Douglas' sharp, detailed view of the world through the frames of his new glasses should feel familiar to any spectacles-wearing kid. Photos of "real kids who wear glasses," with an invitation to "show us how you look in your glasses" by posting a photo on social media, complement Douglas' life-changing adventure. A lighthearted introduction to the perks of wearing glasses. (Picture book. 3-7)
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May 1, 2016
PreS-Gr 2-Douglas is a lovable little dog whose nearsightedness often gets him into trouble. He is unable to see important things like signs and squirrels, and one day a run-in with a beehive prompts his owner Nancy to take him to the eye doctor for glasses. After meeting the doctor and failing the eye test somewhat hilariously, Douglas picks out the perfect pair of glasses and is able to see all of the amazing things and people around him. The tale is light on text, and the blurry font is limited to the cover and title page; the pencil and watercolor cartoon illustrations are what make this book so delightful. Funky patterns and a playful use of bold colors enhance the story and the reading experience.
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2016
Preschool-G The title says it all, with one exception: Douglas is a dog. Nearsighted, he has been known to walk through wet cement. He has even gone into the wrong house and eaten food from a neighbor's dog dish. When Nancy, the girl who cares for him, throws him a ball, Douglas fetches what appears to be a wasp nest instead. Later, at the eye doctor's office, Douglas misidentifies a series of pictures on the eye chart. But after choosing the perfect frames, he walks out wearing glasses and is amazed to see his surroundings clearly for the first time. Kids who wear glasses will understand his reaction, and even those with 20/20 vision will enjoy the story, especially the funny sequence in which Douglas mistakes the silhouette of a squirrel for a dinosaur, a car for a flying saucer, and so on. The pencil-and-watercolor illustrations enhance the story's humor through cartoonlike figures within a colorful, imaginative setting. An appended double-page spread features photos of 18 real kids wearing glasses. It's a satisfying conclusion to an amusing picture book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)