Book Review: Athena, The Anxious Shepherd (German Shepherd Dog, children's book)

Athena, The Anxious Shepherd, by Judy Nole and Chloe Renee (BookBaby, $25, 2025, baby to 10 years, 36pp)

Would you believe the dog on the cover is a German Shepherd Dog? He is so cute!

The cover tells it all in a picture of an anxious pup, though there should also be a photo on the back cover of the dog smiling, happy and relaxed. 

Athena is a bit shy in new places and when new people reach out to pet her. just like many other dogs - and kids, too. Nevertheless, she makes a best friend, Lincoln the Golden Retriever, at dog school and even meets another German Shepherd Dog. Her teacher understands her anxiety and tells her person to work on that over the week until the next session. So, Athena and her person go places and do things.

 But more than that, Athena's person learns to read her body language and can recognize when anxiety is about to rear its head so they can skedaddle on out of there. Athena learns her person will always look out for her but does she make enough progress during the week to stay in the same class as her new friends at school? You will have to read the book to find out!

Book Review: Athena's Special Valentine (children's book about a dog)

Athena's Special Valentine, by Judy Nole and Chloe Renee (BookBaby, 36pp, 2025, ages 3-12, $25.65HB)

With an imaginative dog on the cover - Athena - and a coloring page of the front cover inside, Athena's Special Valentine sparks an interest from the beginning. What could that special valentine be? Candy? Flowers? A friend?

A happy happy book, even though Athena has to have a bath and, later, a bow - with almost funny-looking dogs (Athena's bestie, Lincoln, looks like a golden retriever with short legs) or maybe they are all all-American hounds.

The entire day, Valentine's Day, is special with special friends and play dates in the dog park and even going out to dinner - and most of all, a gift and some huggies.

Athena learns what really makes a special day special and passes on her happiness to the young reader who can chat about what dogs like and what kids like on special days. Of course, there is even a "This book belongs to. . . . " page to color plus it is autographed by both authors!

Although Athena's Special Valentine was written first, the real first book in the series will be reviewed next: Athena, the anxious shepherd. Perhaps more holiday themed books will follow.

Book Review: The Best Bunny (funeral, children's book)(OT)

The Best Bunny: The Adventures of Lil Shen (and her inspirational sidekick, Bunny Best), by Shenandoah Chefalo ($12.95, 2025, ages 3-10, 28pp PB, Chefalo Consulting, the first book of three)

Do you remember when you were just a child and your grandparent passed away? How you didn't know what to do during the funeral and when all those people came over to the house and stayed, talking? How lost you were?

What if your grandparent had left you a gift to unwrap at that time to remember her by?

That is exactly what happened to Lil Shen and it weakened the sadness, allowing her to remember her grandmother and all the good times. The gift was a little stuffed bunny Lil named Bunny Best, or Bunny B for short.

Accepting a death takes time but with her talking bunny Lil learns to do her best. It gets easier and eventually Lil feels OK.

This is a lovely book that should be given to every child. If they don't need it, it may help when a friend's relative dies. It is a sweet, realistic story that your child will remember and may just read and reread often - the illustrations and story are so comforting.

Book Review: Sea Star Cookies (Dog, learn to swim)

Sea Star Cookies: Fearful Fergus Learns Water Safety, by Sarah Chaires (Independent Publisher, 2025, ages2-7, $19.99, 34pp PB)

Fearful Fergus is a fearful 250-pound English Mastiff who is afraid of many things, and, as a consequence, stars in several books to help children who are also easily frightened. In Sea Star Cookies, Fergus learns to swim, despite being afraid of the water. He has the help of his mother, a Water Watcher, and a lifeguard with a whistle.

The pool water looks like so much fun that Fergus can't wait for Mom to put on his life jacket so he can spring into the water but, oh, no! Fergus quickly learns he can't breathe under water but, just as quickly he floats to the surface where he can breathe!

What We Liked

We loved the emphasis on safety - life jackets, lifeguards, water watchers.

What We Would Change

We would have acclimated Fergus gradually to the water by starting in the shallow end but he did listen to his mom while in the water and moved his legs just as she said. 

Of course, the pink starfish (sea star) cookies at the end helped propel the little pup! And the recipe is even included as well as a list of safety tules around the water.

Book Review: Underdogs: Beauty is More than Fur Deep (small coffee table book with contemporary quotes)

Underdogs: Beauty is More than Fur Deep, by Jim Dratfield (Clarkson Potter, $17, 2002, 112 pp)

Every coffee table needs a picture book of dogs and their quotes to serve as a mood enhancer after a difficult day and Underdogs is one such book with non-breeds, unrecognizable canine ones, mongrels and mutts to make your day just a little bit larger with their outrageous personalities.

Most coffee table books illustrate the beautiful breeds of the dog world - the regal Afghans, the sporty goldens, the family labs, but Jim Dratfield has collected 50 or so mottled and brindled dogs he found, those with the most personality to shine through along with quotes from people we all know like Oprah and Charles Schulz (Peanuts).

Though the cover photo is so very descriptive - and magnetic, I might have put this one on the cover (it appears as the first photo in the book, however): 

And, by googling for the Great Dane photo above, I found that Dratfield is my favorite canine (lab) photographer: I have this one as a post card

and haven't we all fallen in love with this lab's thoughts? 

Underdogs is a nice little book to give and to keep (and carry).

Book Review: The Vet at Noah's Ark (inner city veterinarian)

The Vet at Noah's Ark: Stories of Survival from an Inner-city Animal Hospital, by Doug Mader (Apollo Publishers, $24.99, 2022, 371pp) 

A big book that reads fast, with chapters titled month by month and with the names of their major characters so you can guess or remember.

This may just be the Book of the Year! Except this year is 2025 and The Vet was published in 2022.

Veterinarian Doug Mader is someone I would love to know, work with and learn from. The Vet at Noah's Ark (the name of his practice) is located in a less than safe location of a major city, Los Angeles, and author Mader writes about his first year in his own practice, from the viewpoint of years later. Part of this early year is the Rodney King verdict so we live through the aftermath of the rioting that took place mere blocks from the vet clinic.

Mader is someone who embodies the human-animal bond, like a big brother, and though he is one of the few exotic animals vets in California, he writes less about those animals (and a few good dogs and cats thrown in) than about their humans and how all the humans relate to each other - from his staff to the vet students who rotate in each month (some make it, some don't), to the devoted humans who live with snakes or lizards. And the students plus a staffer live in the upstairs apartments!

Mader has high moral standards and wrestles with discounting his knowledge (his prices) for those clients who can't pay the full amount. And we meet the resident hooker and her kitten, John. After all, every hooker needs a John.

To interject a little humor we have the good vet being picked up in a sushi restaurant by a striking blonde. I bet you will read that couple of pages more than once!

The Girls Come Marching Home (female veterans of the Iraqi War)

The Girls Come Marching Home: Stories of Women Warriors Returning from the War in Iraq, by Kirsten Holmstedt (Stackpole, 2009, $27.95, 325pp)

Author Kirsten Holmstedt, who also wrote Band of Sisters. 

has put together a volume of experiences that encompass nearly all that was possible for the women who deployed to Iraq, including their post-deployment trials and tribulations. Her writing style varies with each woman in order to relay each personality and growth while lengthy chapters alternate with very short ones - a unique feature.

Both enlisted and officers' stories, from teens to their 40s, from medical personnel to convoy drivers, those who stayed in the military and those who got out or were chaptered out sometimes for medical reasons, and all the branches, particularly the Marines. The reader truly gets the flavor of what they might expect from women in combat for the first time: their bonding and closeness with each other and with the males in their units. Gender didn't matter: the mission came first. And yet, sexual misconduct does occur and did and is not always dealt with appropriately. Some even came from  broken families and discovered a new family in the military.

This reader especially found the EOD chapter fascinating (explosive ordinance destruction/disposal, the locating and disarming of mines and IEDs (improvised explosive devices). You will find a book that you simply can't put down, especially in the middle of a chapter. And  you will them want to read Band of Sisters and Soul Survivors: Stories of Wounded Women Warriors and the Battles They Fight Long After They've Left the War Zone.