David Dixon's Day as a Dachshund

Class Critters #2

by Kathryn Holmes, Ariel Landy (Illustrator)

The second book in a humorous and heartfelt new chapter book series about a second-grade class where each kid turns into an animal for a dayWhen Mrs. Norrell invites her students to bring something they love from home for show and tell, David Dixon sneaks in his new dachshund puppy, Bandit. But during the presentation, the puppy escapes. By the time David rushes into the hallway, his mischievous puppy has vanished. Mrs. Norrell launches a formal search, but David is an “act first, worry about the consequences later” kind of kid. Without stopping to think or tell anyone what he’s doing, David races off into the school building by himself to find Bandit. As he runs away from Mrs. Norrell’s classroom, David turns into a dachshund! At first, he’s delighted by the transformation and even tracks down Bandit. He and Bandit are able to do whatever they want as dogs—eat the day’s lunch, jump in the suds-filled sink, and run around on the playground. But he doesn’t want to be a dog forever! In this new chapter book series, Mrs. Norrell’s second-grade classroom has magic that allows kids to transform into animals to learn important life lessons. Each book will follow a different kid and their animal transformation, and will include fun natural science facts about the featured animal in the back matter.

128 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2022

About the author

Kathryn Holmes is the author of The Thirteenth Circle, co-written with MarcyKate Connolly, as well as the Class Critters chapter book series (Tally Tuttle Turns Into a Turtle, David Dixon’s Day as a Dachshund, and Madison Morris is NOT a Mouse!). She also wrote the young adult novels The Distance Between Lost and Found and How It Feels to Fly.

Kathryn grew up in Maryville, Tennessee, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, daughter, and piles upon piles of books. A graduate of The New School’s MFA in Creative Writing program, Kathryn works as a freelance dance journalist, among other writing gigs.

Reviews

[Tanya Prax · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Kids will like this one.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

First sentence: David Dixon's backpack wouldn't stop wiggling.

Premise/plot: Magical things happen in Mrs. Norrell's classroom. But to keep the magic going, well, students have to keep it hush hush. David Dixon may have a super adventurous day, but, it's not like he can talk about it the next day with his classmates!

So the hush, hush secret is that Mrs. Norrell's students--one at a time, obviously--can transform into an animal to spend a day. In the first book, Tally Tuttle transforms into a turtle. David Dixon transforms into a dachshund. Which is interesting considering the fact that he brought his dog--a dachshund--for show and tell (without permission). So not only does he get to experience life through the eyes of a dog, he gets to play with his own dog as a dog.

But he also realizes throughout the book--slowly but surely--that maybe he isn't being the most responsible.

David lives for fun...but dog ownership requires a bit of maturity and responsibility. T

My thoughts: I like this series. This is the second book in the new series. I think it is appropriate for early elementary grades (first through third, perhaps). The age of the characters probably don't sync up perfectly with the reading level of the book. (This is fairly typical.)

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an electronic ARC from ABRAMS Kids through NetGalley.
Holmes returns to her Class Critters series with a humorous story with an important underlying message. David smuggled his brand new puppy to school for Show and Tell. To his shock, the puppy runs away. Readers will appreciate how this portion unfolds and predict that Bandit will escape. As David chases his puppy, he wishes he were a dog too. As expected in this series, his wish is granted. He experiences life as a dachshund; finds Bandit; loses Bandit, and is reunited with him with help from his human best friend. When he figures out the responsible actions and takes them, the story moves to the conclusion.
Holmes use language that mid-elementary students will comprehend. They will understand the message to pause and think before taking actions and be able to apply it to their own situations.

[Joni Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an adorable story. My son read it all on his own (with a little help with the names) and he’s not a super strong reader yet. The art work was so cute we talked about each picture throughout the story.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly book - fun to listen to.

[LoveAGoodBook · Rating 3 out of 5]

C

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice little book but it lacked some depth of characters.