What's Your Sign?

The Year of the Dog

Written by Oliver Chin

Illustrated by Miah Alcorn

Immedium, 2006

32 pages

Fiction/Multicultural

            My son is obsessed with the Chinese zodiac, so I choose this book for us to read together.  This book, however, was not what I expected when I checked it out.  I was expecting the same type of book about the Chinese zodiac that I had read in the past, but this book was about a little dog born to protect a young girl.  Through the story all the characters are from the Chinese zodiac, so it made for a fun read and gave a new twist on an old calendar.  So if you have a Chinese zodiac loving kid or you just like to learn something new, this is a great book.

            The illustrations are done in a folk art collage.  The illustrator used cut out paper to form a collage.  The illustrations have the same sharp edge that most Chinese and Japanese cartoons do.  They are in an anime type art work.  The use of bright colors and smiling faces is a change from anime though.  The text is on the pages, so the reader does not have to search for the text and can be easily seen during a read aloud.

            This book would be good for kindergarten through sixth grade.  A social studies and geography lesson about China and their culture would be a great fit for this book.  A character education lesson would also work well because the little dog protects the little girl and watches out for her.  At this time this book as won no awards.