Nikki Moustaki
HarperCollins (2008)
ISBN 9780061575617
Reviewed by Avery Largent (age 9) for Reader Views (7/08)
“Dogfessions: Secret Confessions from Dogs” by Nikki Moustaki is a hilarious book full of cute snapshots and silly captions. The book is filled with “dogfessions” from both dogs and their owners that are mostly very funny, sometimes gross, sometimes sad, and often heartwarming.
“Dogfessions” made me laugh out loud. It has things you’d never guess would happen that are still funny, such as, “I spent more money on the cake for my dog’s birthday party (44 bucks) than I did for my huband’s 50th birthday party (12 bucks)” and “For nine years our Holiday Cards have featured photos of the dogs. Some of our far-away friends are wondering what WE look like,” and many more. Also there are sometimes sayings used to go with funny pictures, including one based on “if you dig far enough, you’ll reach China” with an adorable picture of a black, shaggy dog covered in sand.
Mixed in with all the hilarious things are a few spots in the book that are not very appealing. Most dog owners know dogs do those gross things some time, but it still is not very pretty to hear them mentioned. One caption from the book that I found particularly disgusting “When no one’s watching…I eat poo.” However, there are so few that they are almost drowned out by the funny captions.
Besides all the light-hearted things, there are some spots in the book that are so sad, they are upsetting. The book really shows how much owners love and care for their dogs, but the downside of this is the heartbreak people experience when they lose their dogs. Indeed, there are eleven pages dealing with this sort of sadness, and many of these made me tearful. One page included a poem by someone who lost a dog that was so expressive and sad that it did actually make me cry. Also, since a lot of dogs look alike because they are the same breed, there was a picture that had the same kind of dog that I used to have, and it made my lip tremble, because it looked so much like him and I still miss him so much. It’s hard to have sadness mixed in randomly among such cute and funny pages.
There are also many heartwarming pages, like cute pictures of puppies and sweet little things supposedly said by dogs or their owners. One page has a picture of a puppy that made me want to jump into the book and hug it, and on another page, a picture of a girl hugging a dog that was captioned “Why pay for therapy? A hug from Cricket makes me forget all my problems.”
This book was quite a combination of heartwarming, gross, funny, and sad things, all pouring together to make a great book. I would recommend “Dogfessions: Secret Confessions from Dogs” by Nikki Moustaki to my friends, especially dog-loving ones. I would also say any dog-lover, adult, or child, would very much enjoy this book.
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