Samm Hodges

Thank you to Netgalley, Animal Media Group, Samm Hodges, and Phinheas Hodges for the gracious offer to read and review this ARC;

"and is it really my job to figure this stuff out?
I have so many questions and so little time."


I have to admit off the bat what I went into expect light and fluffy (on the account of being about a dog), or perhaps soul searching ideas (on the account of Haiku's), I was indeed blown away how this book managed in far less than ten minutes to make me feel moved so many times and more than once nearly to tears.

I found identifications to the bonding, the risk of loss, the heart deep dedication between them as the topics spanned so wide: chasing squirrels, getting fixed, having a lover, the rusty edge of disease and impending death, the quite imperfect truth that dogs age so much faster than people. The art, too, brought a brand new level to all the inspired feelings of this work.

I will be looking forward, with high hopes, to the future publications by these two.… (lisätietoja)

In 2017 there was a very short lived series on ABC about an adopted rescue dog named Martin. I don't watch a lot of television and the show's run was so short, that I somehow missed it. Seems like a lot of people did. People who are now scrambling to watch the episodes online and wishing they hadn't missed out. And still others were fans of the cute, heart-warming show....before ABC pulled the plug on it after only one season. Their justification? Too expensive to produce.

I hope Netflix or another of the big streaming services picks up the show, or that they make some online videos. They made a video series before the television series was filmed, and about 12 minutes of video was released to promo the television show. You can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjyWVGHypXY&t=461s

I love any show with a talking dog. :) So I knew I would also love poetry written by a dog....well written by two television writers who write simulated dog poetry. I would like to think that Martin dictated the poems and the writers jotted it down for him. Kinda hard to type or hold a pen with paws. Yeah...that must be what happened. :)

The cover for this book is sweet and shows the dog from the television series (who was actually adopted from a shelter). The poems and artwork are perfect. I kept looking at my dog Roxie and thinking how almost all of them fit how she might feel sometimes. :)

My favorite is this one:

Winter is Netflix
And a shared blanket we
both fart under

There is some great artwork by Idil Gozde as well.

Great, fun book for any dog lover, especially the proud parents of an adopted shelter dog!!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Animal Media Group via NetGalley. All opinions expressed (including this one: SOMEONE PICK UP THE OPTION ON THIS SHOW AND BRING IT BACK!!!!) are entirely my own.**… (lisätietoja)

I never saw the TV series, so that didn't play a role in my wanting to read this. A short read, like, less than an hour even pausing periodically to think about the poems. Some were cute, some touching, even a couple I really found quite good. My thoughts are more about what they made me think about than judging them as good or bad haiku, I don't think I'm qualified to do that. But a fun little book, probably would make a cute small gift for dog and/or poetry lovers.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (lisätietoja)