Why Dogs Have Wet Noses

A line of animals marching onto an ark on the title page offers a hint of what's to come in Kenneth Steven's clever story involving "a man named Noah."

A bearded man stands under an umbrella, overlooking a valley, as the story starts: "A long, long time ago, not long after the world began, it started to rain." As the rain continues, the man "began to build a lifeboat" and called it "the Ark." Oyvind Torseter's line drawings on a cream-colored background, with a patch of blue to represent sky and a large swath of salmon pink for the interior of the vessel, depict its mammoth size, as Noah saws a plank six stories up. Comic touches include an alligator sporting a backpack, a monkey pulling a suitcase on wheels and Noah with a pea-green tattoo on his left forearm as the passengers arrive. A dog boards last. Several pages in, "Land had long since vanished." Children will pour over the details in Torseter's cutaway view as creatures play cards, a crew member draws a map, and the dog shadows Noah carrying supplies. Twenty days in, the Ark springs a leak, and what do you think is the remedy? (Hint: It answers the title question.) As an extra bonus, Noah needs no dove when he has man's best friend on board to catch a whiff of land.

Whether or not children are familiar with Noah and his Ark, they will clamor for repeated readings of this original retelling that doubles as a pourquoi tale. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness

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