Help Me, Mr. Mutt! (Bluebonnet nominee)

   Stevens, Janet, Crummel, Susan Stevens. (2008). Help Me, Mr. Mutt!  Expert Answers for Dogs with People Problems. Austin, TX; Harcourt, Inc.

   Help Me, Mr. Mutt! Expert Answers for Dogs with People Problems is a Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee for 2009-2010.

   This book doesn’t follow a traditional plot line. Mr. Mutt is the protagonist. He calls himself a canine counselor (he’s an advice columnist of sorts!). He lives with, The Queen, a bossy cat.

    Mr. Mutt answers letters from dogs about problems they are having with their humans. The book is written from the dog and cat’s point of view and is strictly humorous!  For instance, when a “workin’ dog” writes in that his people are always trying to clean him up, Mr. Mutt replies, “I don’t know why people hate dog hair. I’m covered with it and I like it!”

         The format of the book is letters to Mr. Mutt, his replies, and letters of response from the cat.

         I like the illustrations in this book on some pages and don’t care so much for them on others. In Mr. Mutt’s response letters, the illustrations of how a dog should sleep on a human’s bed, or how a dog should play are clearly drawn and very cute. Some of the pages in the book, although not many, have illustrations that use expressionism and these didn’t work so well for me.