Who Wants Arthur?

Amanda Graham has teamed up here with Donna Gynell, an illustrator, to bring us a down right hilarious, but at the same time rather whimsical story of a plain brown dog who wants nothing more than a loving home and a pair of old slippers to chew. Arthur the plain brown dog (who, as dogs go, is no raving beauty, and in fact is a bit on the ugly side), is living in Mrs. Humber's Pet Shop with a lot of other animals. Each day Arthur is placed in the window with the other animals and waits; he only wants a home and slippers to chew. Each day all the other animals are sold, rabbits, snakes, fish, the list goes one. Each day all the other animals find homes but Arthur is left. Being at his wits end, Arthur, a rather creative dog, decides if rabbits are what people want, then he will become like a rabbit and stays up all night practicing. Many carrots later and after much wiggling his nose and ears, the plane brown dogs finds it is all for naught. He tries being a snake and then a fish; still with no luck. Arthur would be willing to try being a purple, spotted, three-headed donkey, if he thought it would work. No one seems to want just a plane brown dog. Now I take great care in not adding spoilers to my reviews, so I will stop at this point! The art work is this particular work is appealing to the extreme. It is in fact hilarious. The expressions on Arthur's face, the antics of the other animals that the illustrator has hidden here and there throughout the book make this one a visual pleasure for both young and old alike. The story is funny, sweet and quite well done. Kids love this book; both the plot and the art. This one is only 30 pages long and is quite suitable for children ages 4 through 8. Adults will enjoy reading the story with the kids, simply due to the art work if for no other reason. Now in my case, I am certainly not a fan of stores that sell pets, but in this case I have to over look my prejudices and state that this is a fine story and a good read for kids. Don Blankenship The Ozarks

All Arthur wants is a home with a pair of old slippers to chew, but when Mrs. Humber puts him in the window of her pet shop all the other dogs are taken except him. It seems nobody wants Arthur. Then she puts him in the window with some rabbits. The rabbits are taken, but not Arthur, so he practices being a rabbit. The next day the snakes are all bought up and Arthur practices being a snake and so it goes till all the pets in the store are gone to new homes, except Arthur. It seems nobody wants Arthur. But there is a little girl who has been watching Arthur pretened to be a rabbit, a snake, a frog, a fish and more and she comes to the store to get the dog who can perform all those tricks. So, it seems somebody wants Arthur after all. My girls just loved this story as they toddled through their threes. Donna Gynell's illustrations are beautiful and Ms. Graham's story is timeless. There is somebody for everybody, sometimes you just have to look a bit, or maybe even perform a trick or two. Sophie Cacique Gaul

This story really touched my heart in the end, when Arthur thought he was never going to ever going to be a pet of anybody, then all of a sudden a little girl comes and takes him. I'm sure that really felt good for that dog. This story is funny in some ways when he trys to act like another animal. That has a lotta laughs in it. This is a good story to a person who thinks they will never get accepted by anybody, because you know that someday you will always be accepted. Great story!!!!!!!!!

Arthur is a plain brown dog in a pet shop who sees pets of various kinds being purchased each day. When he sees several of a certain kind of pet purchased each day, he practices trying to be the type of pet that is in demand in the evenings after the store is closed, but each time, the following morning customers seem to be interested in a different kind of pet than what he has been emulating. Finally, someone comes in looking for a plain brown dog, and he realizes that he just needs to be himself. Just by being himself, and waiting patiently, he finds that someone wants him.There are many people who go through life doing the same sort of thing as Arthur, but unfortunately, many of them never realize that they only need to act naturally for others to accept them. I think that there is a lesson in this story that people of every age can learn.