Lulu walks the dogs by Judith Viorst illustrated by Lane Smith

Writing book reviews it such a subjective thing.  This really struck me when I finished reading Lulu Walks the dogs.  I absolutely loved loved loved this funny and warm hearted little book. I liked it even more than the first Lulu installment which I also reviewed called Lulu and the Brontosaurus. And I am now excited to discover book three is coming soon.

When I finished reading Lulu walks the dogs I immediately clicked open the Kirkus review.  Read it yourself if you like but I was so disappointed the Kirkus reviewer did not really like Lulu walks the dogs.  He or she found "Viorst’s numerous authorial asides—in which the narrator insists on control of the storyline and stops for brief question-and-answer sessions with readers—come across as more confusing than clever because the voice and personality of the narrator are almost indistinguishable from Lulu’s."  I utterly disagree.  I loved all the little asides.  I always enjoy comments from an off stage narrator and in this book they work really well adding to the humour and also sustaining the mystery of why Lulu needs all this money.  The comments come as a repeated refrain.  "I really don't feel like discussing that right now."

Lulu needs money.  She won't say why but to get money she will need a job.

"Well may be you already know and maybe you don't.  Because Lulu first decided her jobs - or job - should be baking cookies, or spying, or reading to old people, and these jobs did not turn out too well. And maybe instead of writing a chapter about how those jobs did not turn out too well, I'm moving right along to Chapter Four."

What about the dogs?  Well they are hilarious too.  There is Brutus "an enormous, bigheaded, bad-breathed brute", Pookie (rhymes with DUKE and not BOOK) a teeny-tiny white fuzzball who must be carried until she needs to be placed gently under a tree to do what she needs to do and finally there is Cordelia, a German speaking Dachshund.  How will Lulu ever manage to walk these three very different dogs every morning before school?  Well the short answer is she won't - not without help and that help will come from Fleishman - her sworn enemy.

If I gave book stars Lulu walks the dog would be a five out of five or a ten out of ten or a one hundred out of one hundred book - I am sure you are getting the message here.  Rush rush into your library and read this book today.  I am sure you will love it too.