Product Description

Bipsie had been bought to replace The dearly departed Sweetface A beauty in blues With some parts chartreuse She clashed with the whole bloody place. Dog fans of all ages will love FLAWED DOGS, the annual publication of the fictional 'Last Chance' Dog Pound, in the small town of Piddleton, Vermont. Pulitzer Prize-winning Berkeley Breathed, whose books for adults and children have sold a whopping eight million copies, is at the top of his form with his riotous depictions of these imperfect dogs and their original, dissatisfied owners. Berkeley Breathed is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. His comic strip, Bloom County, ran for years in newspapers worldwide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128805 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 48 pages

Amazon.com Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and children's picture book author Berkeley Breathed crafts a remarkable, hilarious, and yes, even poignant celebration of "flawed dogs": "The bent and plain,/ The unbalanced bod,/ The imperfect people/ And differently pawed." At the core of this "2004 Catalogue of the Piddleton Dog Pound's Very Available Leftovers" is Heidy Strudelberg, "Garbo, Joan of Arc, and Mother Teresa of the nation's unwanted dogs: a reclusive warrior-saint of poundpups." Breathed reveals how Heidy was ousted from the high-falutin’ vanity dog breeding world when she awarded a muddy three-legged street mutt the Westminster Best in Show ribbon. Now, it seems, Heidy has retreated to the Vermont mountains to run the Last Chance Dog Pound, where defective dogs go for one more attempt at getting adopted. The bulk of Flawed Dogs, once you've laughed your way through the introductions and formalities, is a gallery of pathetic pups with accompanying verses. A picture of an extra-long Dachshund startling the dishes right out of her mistress's hands, is captioned thus: "Here’s Sal, it seems no one wants her./ Her ends will stroll off and wander./ A long doggie weenie/ Of noisy linguine/ Sal barks at her butt way down yonder." Dog lovers will be all in a tizzy to get their hands on this crazy, wonderful salute to blemished beagles and faulty foxhounds everywhere. (Ages 8 and older) --Emilie Coulter

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-A tongue-in-cheek parade of mongrels, mutts, and generally unadoptable dogs fills this catalog of the Piddleton "Last Chance" Dog Pound in Vermont. The introductory pages present a cast of heavily satirized human characters as well as a brief history of the shelter, "where the doomed and most desperate are sent- for a final try at getting adopted into a world that worships perfection." The following pages each feature a sad sack and often bizarre dog-too colorful, too gassy, too long, too hairy, likes to crawl up people's noses-and a brief rhyming verse that describes its unhappy past. The full-color acrylics are rendered with broad exaggeration, dark and slightly sinister tones, and a rubbery suppleness that tends toward the grotesque. A note at the end encourages readers to adopt at local shelters. Adults will best appreciate the satire though older children may enjoy the goofy humor and outrageousness of the poor unwanted pooches featured here.
Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha's Public Library, WI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Berkeley Breathed lives and works in Santa Barbara, California and is the proud owner of a gentle pit bull named Ridley, a deaf dachshund named Milly, and a refugee mutt from the Puerto Rican streets named Pilar -- splendidly flawed dogs, every one.

Customer Reviews

Whimsical canines
Welcome to Piddleton, Vermont (population 327, people 243), where the Last Chance Dog Pound presents its annual catalog of flawed and unadoptable dogs. Pictures of these wacky canines are accompanied with descriptions in rhyme penned by members of the Piddleton Poetry Club. This hilarious catalog includes Buttercup, a shar pei with one too many face lifts, iBoo, the robot dog whose faulty programming neglected housebreaking, and Spanks, the cat in dog's clothing. These pups are whimsical and endearing, and the only way in which they are truly flawed is in their lack of love. This story makes an earnest plea to adopt one of the millions of animals currently in shelters. A funny book for animal lovers of all ages.

The cutest!!!!
I dont normaly buy childrens books but I picked this one up in the bookstore and had to have it. The little rymes are cute and the overall message is good, but the artwork is absolutely beautiful and very funny. Its amazing how much expression a cartoon drawing can have.

Could a book of cartoons win Berke another Pulizter?
I picked this up in the bookstore the other day because I'm a big Berke Breathed fan. After glancing at the first page or two, I was drawn in and carried the book over to a nearby chair and read it straight through. I laughed and cried, then went home and ordered copies for all the animal lovers on my Christmas list. This is one of the funniest and, ultimately, most touching books I've read in a long time. Buy it.