This review is about all the books in the Spot the Dog series by Eric Hill (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_the_Dog) and not a specific book.
Books for children used to fascinate me as a child. The concept is beautiful as children always like that feeling of ownership.
I was introduced to Spot the Dog series by my brother who is in the US, when he sent one of the books for my child. From then on not for a night have I missed reading Spot stories to my child.
Books for toddlers normally look silly and easy. But try writing a story yourself and I bet you’ll find it tough. The stories have to be necessarily silly and simple, but make sense to the child. Most importantly it has to grab a toddler’s attention, which I believe is the toughest. The pictures are even more important as they act as the crayons of creativity for the toddler. The Spot series (ideally for kids from 1.5 to 3 years) achieves all these to perfection.
The stories narrate day-to-day experiences of Spot, a cute puppy. The author succeeds in creating situations easily identified with by toddlers; whether it is Spot playing with his friends, getting a hug from his dad, nagged by his mom for not eating. My child is unlikely to ever forget Spot getting inside the tiger’s cage in search of his ball, covering his sleeping dad with sand on the beach and claiming that he made the chocolate cake when all he did was licking the chocolate throughout and many more. Messages-parents’ love, importance of being careful, the fun of having fun- flow through without a trace of effort. To top it all the stories have the sweet vigor of positivity, which can be long lasting in the minds of children.
The books are fairly costly. I have never bought one, and get these from a library called ’Just Books’ (about which I had written an earlier review). Love to hear the sweet sound of your child’s laughter. Give him/her the best. I too will try.