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Location: Home > Dog Books > Fiction > Skippyjon Jones in the Dog-House

Skippyjon Jones in the Dog-House

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Author: Judy Schachner
Publisher: Dutton Children's Books
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$16.99~~
Buy Used: $4.23
You Save: $12.76 (75%)

New (33) Used (25) from $4.23

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

51 reviews
Sales Rank: 58363

Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 32
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 10.6 x 9 x 0.3

ISBN: 0525472975
EAN: 9780525472971
ASIN: 0525472975

Publication Date: April 7, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: dust cover slightly worn, missing included CD Used - Good Default Text

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 51

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Be prepared to sing and have fun! March 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

When we were looking for a story to read last night, my 3-year-old son pulled out this Skippyjon Jones book. I know I have read it to them once before a couple of months ago, but I didn't remember the details. However, my six-year-old son asked if it was the one with the Bobble-ito. As soon as I read the first couple of pages, he knew it was and he was very happy.

I have to agree that the plotting on this one was a little harder to follow, IMO, than the other Skippyjon Jones books (we have the original one and the Egypt one), but my kids seem to understand it just fine. And you don't need to read the first one in the series to still appreciate this book. The first book we read was the Egypt one (aka Mummy Trouble) and we still enjoyed it without benefit of the first one.

We enjoy all the Skippyjon Jones books because there is a lot of Spanglish in them, which is the primary language spoken in our house. My boys really seem to like Skippyjon's antics and his active imagination. They also seem to enjoy the reveals in the end of the story where we learn what real world items in Skippyjon's closet became part of his fantasy world with the Chimichangos. And they really enjoy the little songs throughout the book (you just need to provide your own melody when you read it). All in all, if you feel comfortable with a little Spanglish, this is a great book.

4 out of 5 stars

Wonderful cross-cultural children's book February 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I loved this book. Hilarious! My daughter wants me to read it to her every day. Such colorful characters and lingo!

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent! February 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

My children love the Skippyjon Jones books. We read them over and over and they never tire of them. I often send my 7 year old to bed at night and find him later with his lamp on in bed reading this or another Skippyjon Jones book to himself. As a parent I can say that these books are very fun to read as well, they remind me of the light heartedness and sing-song style of "Chicks and Salsa". Excellent series, if you have children age 4 - 9 I would say these books are a must-have!

1 out of 5 stars

El Stinko January 25, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

"You're not the boss of me" was not in my granson's vocabulary until we foolishly read this story to him. Drawing on the walls was not something he did until he heard it in this story. The Spanish accent is insulting. Don't read this book to your children!

4 out of 5 stars

Definitely Different... December 26, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Your kid may be fascinated by this book without ever understanding why. Is that a good thing? Well, probably -- I'm one of those who feel that literature should stimulate and challenge the brain. But I think most kids might find it hard to follow the wild Spanglish wordplay, to get all the jokes, or even to follow the storyline at first.

Our young reader, whose reading skill is generally higher than the age range proposed here, had trouble figuring out whether Skippyjon really is a cat or a dog. That's partly due to the character's insistence on his alternate identity in the text, but it's also partly due to the fact that the illustrator has exaggerated the cat's doglike characteristics (notably the ears).

In this book Skippyjon is banished to his room for a timeout, where he uses the opportunity for a flight of fancy in his closet. His imagination is wild to the point of being surreal, in my view. That's not necessarily bad, but it is unusual, and you might need a second or third reading to work out just what is happening, and who the "characters" are, and why they are singing such strange and silly songs.

On one hand, the audacity of the text could be viewed as refreshing. But I am tempted to wonder whether Ms. Schachner dashed off this manuscript after sipping a bit too much Mezcal. Since she's an artist, one might say that would be in character, but I have no similar theory to explain why the publisher did not require more tweaking -- just a few things here or there to clarify the story and make it accessible to more readers.

Who knows, perhaps one needs to read the first book in the series to really "get it" -- but that's not a good thing, in my view. Anyway, it is fun to read aloud IF you are familiar with Spanish phonetics and Mexican foods. But if you don't know that "Holy Jalapeno" is alliterative, or how a small white blankie might resemble a tortilla, then you might find the book even more confusing.

Based on just this one book, I'm not ready to buy into the allegations of ethnic stereotyping. Chihuahua is a placename in Mexico, and the dogs are named after it. So, if an *imaginary* cat *imagines* that he is a chihuahua dog, then it makes sense for him to imagine that he speaks Spanish. But since he is NOT REALLY a Mexican dog, it makes sense that he'd only speak a limited amount of often-mangled Spanish -- which is what one finds in the book -- and that his understanding of Mexican culture is superficial.

But I'd want to see other books in this series before reaching a conclusion on that topic. My opinion of this one is that it is quite fresh and the artwork appropriate to the silly subject. And for the past day or so I have been watching a kid picking this book up over and over, often in preference to a pile of other books available. That must count for something!

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