Canine-obsessed children will likely devour the illuminating Why Are Dogs by cartoonist Brittany Long Olsen (The Happy Shop), a middle-grade deep dive into the histories of dog breeds and why different dogs now look and act the way they do.
"Why do Borzois have such long noses?" "Why do poodles have that distinctive haircut?" In this illustrated history, Olsen asks questions about some of the world's "more than three hundred different dog breeds" and explores their backgrounds. With answers spanning continents and centuries, Olsen describes the jobs dogs did, how humans responded to those breeds, and how individual dog breeds act and appear now. Olsen does not shy away from harder topics, and the conversations around docking (cutting short the tails of certain dog breeds) and dog fighting might alarm more sensitive readers. The artist's style features thick lines and slightly cartoonish figures reminiscent of Raina Telgemeier, and renders dogs down to their basics through long, broken lines that differentiate breeds remarkably well considering how closely some resemble one another. Olsen's title will be an absolutely pawsome gift for dog lovers and burgeoning historians. --Nicole Brinkley, bookseller and writer