No Dogs Allowed!

by Sonia Manzano, Jon J. Muth (Illustrator)

This is Iris.
And this is her family:
Shorty the Fortune-teller,Mami the Busy, Papi the Clever, Carmen the Beautiful, plus the Wise Old People, Don Joe the Grocer, and, of course, El Exigente, the Dog (who's very good at sleeping).
Everyone, especially El Exigente, is excited to go to the lake...but will they EVER get there?

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Family, Fiction, Humor, Cultural

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Sonia Manzano (born June 12, 1950) is an American actress and writer. She is best known for playing Maria on Sesame Street from 1971 until her retirement in 2015.

Manzano was born in New York City and was raised in South Bronx. Her parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico. Manzano attended the High School of Performing Arts, where she began her acting career. She attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on a scholarship.

In her junior year, she came to New York to star in the original production of the off-Broadway show GodspellManzano joined the production of Sesame Street in 1971, where she eventually began writing scripts for the series. On June 29, 2015, it was announced that Manzano would be retiring from the show after 44 years.

She has performed on the New York stage, in the critically acclaimed theatre pieces The Vagina Monologues and The Exonerated. She has written for the Peabody Award-winning children's series, Little Bill, and has written a parenting column for the Sesame Workshop web site called "Talking Outloud".

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Manzano's name and picture.

Her children's book No Dogs Allowed, published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2004, is one of five books selected by the General Mills initiative "Spoonfuls of Stories". As part of that effort, Manzano is working with General Mills and its nonprofit partner, First Book, to encourage children to read and to help children across the United States gain access to books. The book has been adapted as a stage play. She is also the author of The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (2014).

She has served on the March of Dimes Board; the board of the George Foster Peabody Awards; and the board of a New York City theatrical institution, Symphony Space. She is a member of the board of advisors of the Project Sunshine Book Club. She was featured in the Learning Leaders (volunteers helping students succeed) poster, designed to encourage reading in NYC public schools.

Manzano was nominated twice for an Emmy Award as Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series. As a writer for Sesame Street, Manzano won 15 Emmy Awards. In 2004, she was inducted into the Bronx Hall of Fame.

Manzano has received awards from the Association of Hispanic Arts, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, the Hispanic Heritage Award for Education in 2003, and the "Groundbreaking Latina Lifetime Achievement" award from the National Association of Latina Leaders in 2005. She received a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from University of Notre Dame in 2005. As in Ms. Manzano's case, a D.F.A. is typically an honorary degree conferred to someone who has made a significant contribution to society in the arts. The Dream Big Initiative of the Bronx Children's Museum honored Manzano in 2014.

Manzano resides in the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her husband Richard Reagan, whom she married in 1986, and their daughter Gabriella.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Charmaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

No Dogs allowed is a great story about a young girl and entire family taking a trip to the beach with the family dog. The story is told through the voice of the young girl. While she talks about the trip to the beach she gives unique details about every family member. The girl is faced with a dilemma when she finds out her pet dog isn't allowed on the beach. The family comes up with different ways to play with the dog while they are at the beach. This story is great to read to students because it shows children how to write stories with a sense of voice. The author Sonia Manzano uses imagery and descriptive to writing to capture readers attention. As a teacher I would use this story to reinforce the importance of descriptive writing and also building upon characters. Characters are developed by using describing words that allow you to imagine the character in your head. I would remind students that without looking at the story they can form a vision of a character. After reading the story I will ask students to think how they think the character looks, their personality and the emotions they experience in the story. I would remind students they have to pay attention to the details in the story to help develop the character in their brain. I will reread specific pages in the story for students to see examples of words describing the character. Once we have talked about describing a character I will do a follow up activity to emphasize the strategy students learned in class. Students will practice writing descriptively to help improve their c by making it more interesting and engaging to read.

[Lane Gilchrist · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about Iris and her family taking a vacation with their family to the Lake in Enchanted State Park. Iris' older sister had a concern about taking their dog El Exigente to the park with them, but her parents said that it would be trouble if the dog stayed. They end up taking the dog with them and their whole family, but when they get there they see a sign that says No Dogs Allowed. So the dog just stayed in the parking lot.

I would use this book in my classroom for the purpose to show kids even when life does not go your way, you can still find a way to improvise to have fun. I think this book would also appeal to children as most kids that I know love dogs.

[Blair Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

“No Dogs Allowed” is an adorable belly laugh of a story about Iris and her family’s amazing trip to the lake. You meet Iris, her older sister Shorty “the fortune teller,” her Mami “the busy,” Papi “the clever,” and all the other colorful people that are members of this wonderful family - and that includes friends adopted into it! Doom is predicted by Shorty before they even set out. She is sure their family dog, Exigente, will ruin the trip to the lake. The prophecy nearly comes true if it weren’t for the joy, fortitude, and love of this tightly bonded family. All the colorful characters pull together through every adversity to make it a hilariously joyful and memorable day.

Sonia Manzano (of Sesame Street fame) has given us an opportunity to glimpse a few of the special gifts of her Puerto Rican heritage including joyful perseverance in the face of adversity and the iron clad bonds of family and friends. Despite all the zany personalities, everyone accepts each other with humor and love. Elderly members are respected and treasured for their wisdom and experience. Life’s difficulties are turned into opportunities with love and cheerful hopefulness. Jon Muth’s colorful zany illustrations portray the characters in this story perfectly. The illustrations become a kind of picture search to find all the silly details contained in the narrative that runs on with authentic exuberance!

I highly recommend this book. My children request this story every time we find the need for a good long laugh. We wrap ourselves up in the warm blanket of joy and love that radiates from this story and giggle until our sides ache!

[Lydia Boverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is by far one of my favorites, it is so sweet and is centered around a big crazy family which I so relate to. It tells the story of a family going to the beach, and the young daughter is is choosing to take her most prized possession, her dog. On their way there, they get lost and when they finally arrive they come face to face with a sign that says, "NO Dogs allowed!" They are all distraught about this, and began to start loudly trying to figure it out. This goes on for a long time until the dad of the daughter tells everyone to be quiet and says that if they are gonna be taking awhile to figure this out they out to set everything down since it was getting heavy. This causes everyone to set up all the possessions people had brought and food and drinks to come about. While they are there, each person takes a turn sitting with the dog in the parking lot trying to think of a solution, yet, before they know it, it's the end of the day and time to go home. No real solution was ever thought of, and yet everyone had the best time.

This book is so fun and I think it can be used in the classroom to teach many things about family, life, and adventure, but mainly, I feel it can be best served as learning how to take the situations given to you and making the best out of every situation, whether or not you end up figuring it out completely or are just along for the ride.

[Kaija Caldwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel, "No Dogs Allowed!," by Sonia Manzano, tells the story of a 7 year old girl named Iris and her family, her neighbors,closest friends, and her dog, El Exigente,all take a car ride to the beach. When they finally get to the beach after getting lost and breaking down and waiting on the side of the road for hours for the car to be fixed, everyone is ready to have a good time especially Iris and her dog El Exigente. There's one problem when they get to the beach, there's a sign that says, "No Dogs Allowed!" Trying to figure out what to do, everybody takes turn staying in the parking lot with El Exigente all day until they figure out a way to figure out this issue. I believe the theme of this book is sometimes the biggest problems have the smallest solutions. I think this is the theme because even though El Exigente was not allowed at the beach, which was a big problem for everyone. The simpliest and smallest of solutions was found by trying to find a solution. " We might as well take turns staying with El Exigente until we figure out what to do."...(Manzano 19)

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - No Dogs Allowed! is a very nicely illustrated and cleverly written story about a family going on a trip together. The story is narrarated by Iris and her family includes Mami the Busy, Papi the Clever, Shorty the Fortune-Teller (her older sister), Carmen the Beautiful as well as people like Don the Grocer and Iris' dog, El Exigente.
Some of the illustrations really are laugh out loud funny and super cute - the facial expressions the best.
When the family arrives at their destination they all find one thing that can ruin the entire celebration. But, the kicker is that no one lets it. The celebration and vacation is just as good, if not better, that it would have been initially.
This can open up more than a few topics for conversation with you children and make for some really interesting thoughts and feelings.
I'd love to see more books by both Sonia Manzano AND Jon J. Muth.

[Molly Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a story that is told from the perspective of seven-year-old Iris. Iris tells the story of when she went to the lake with her family when she was six. She recounts the troubles they had getting to the beach with their entire family, getting lost, and the big problem they ran into when they got there. This problem was that dogs were not allowed at the lake, but Iris had brought her dog. The story tells how the family tries to solve this problem they run into.

This book is a funny story that uses creative words to describe each member of the family. The author does a great job using her words to help create the story. The illustrator does a fantastic job of bringing all of those words into a picture.

This book would be great to use in a first grade classroom. It would be a fun story to read to the class, and then discuss problem solving, like how Iris has to solve the "no dogs allowed" problem.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty entertaining, I liked the mexican nuances that were littered throughout the book. The illustrations were pretty humorous as well. There was one major flaw I found while reading this book. There was a line that said something about the mother having time to "crochet" and the picture that accompanied that line was of the mother Knitting. And not only was she Knitting, but she was knitting the Wrong Way. She was knitting upside down (which is impossible, the stitches would fall off). Now, most people probably would not catch this flaw, but to a knitter, it is entirely one thing to be called a crocheter and then not even get the knitting part right. Aside from that flaw, the book was okay and I might recommend.

*Taken from my book reviews blog: http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2009...

[Magila · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5

I have never quit a children's book before. This book, I nearly quit. It was rather long, and (to me) very boring.

The story begins with a family planning to go to swim together at a lake. It's a summertime outing, and the nuclear and extended family is involved. A girl brings her dog, who then causes some trouble. Not interesting trouble mind you, but the very boring kind.

There was this, we are from a Latin background thing going, but there was no real commitment to it. There were about 3 Spanish words in a (older-age) picture book just filled with words.

I've given it two stars only because I was able to finish, and I comes with music. The thought was nice, the execution was terrible. The pictures were fine, but sort of generic and also unremarkable.

I'd save myself the time and energy and skip this one.

[Vincent Mageto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sonia Manzano utilizes a nice approach to catch the attention of young readers. As Iris and her family travel to the beach, they are delayed when their car breaks down and this keeps the readers waiting to see what the solution will be. After they have managed to fix their car, they face yet another bigger problem of not being able to play with their dog in the beach. To any young reader who has a pet, this is heart breaking and painful. However, in order to ensure that they do not lose it all, Iris and company decide that they will take turns in staying with the dog until they find a better solution. The moral lesson of the story is that even if there are circumstances when we seem to have no way out, there is always a small escape route.
This story is a good read to young children as it helps them to perfect their skills on writing descriptive essays.

[Jen]

(2004) Iris lives in the Bronx in New York City with her mom, dad, and older sister. She recounts the day when her family--and more than a handful of friends--drive to Enchanted State Park to spend the day at the beach. Busy Mami (Iris's mom) and Clever Papi (Iris's dad) spend an entire day getting ready by packing the car and cooking a feast. On the way to the beach the family's car breaks down and they get lost. When they reach the beach they also find out that their dog, El Exigente, isn't allowed on the beach. While they think of a solution to the problem they unpack the car and each take turns watching the dog. Before they know it the day is over and Iris realizes that even though things didn't go as planned--it still was a wonderful day.

[Jennesy · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Dogs Allowed is about a family getting up early to meet their other family members for a big picnic. They end up breaking down on the side of the road and spend the day trying to think of something to do in the meantime. The reason dogs are not allowed, rule number one for the big sister, becuase the dog always wrecks things. This is a good book for friendship and family. It is a very relatable book for young kids, especially young Mexican kids.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book showing a family, extended family, and community as they enjoy a day at the beach together.

Far from the "No Dogs Allowed" rule ruining their fun because the dog can't come on the beach, everyone manages to enjoy the day while people take turns spending time with the dog.

I love the way you get a sense of the important parts of people's personalities from the way a child describes them.

[Khristine Gilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like SOME Dr. Seuss books do for me... Never-ending. My 6 yr. old, who loves stories because it means she avoids bedtime fell asleep before the end, and she can stay awake through 'Go Dog, Go'. Maybe she didn't connect culturally, or maybe she just didn't care about the characters' plight.. She's only 6, though. Maybe we'll try again later, maybe not.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a charming story about how a regular family meets regular daily obstacles. This would be a good teaching tool for middle school kids or for ESL students or older elementary struggling readers.

[Jade Detzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was taken from the perspective of a young Puerto Rican girl and a family get away to the beach along with memebrs of the community. This book is a good for sequencing and repetition. The illustrations do a great job following the lenghty text on the pages.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book about making a trip to the state park for the day that includes a caravan of people, things and what to do with a dog that is not allowed in the state park.

[Cws]

JAR4-Man

[Christine Levinge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really fun and a great story!! It has so many good aspects all in one book-great family story, multicultural, funny... definitely one I want to have in my class!

[Michael D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful read for highlighting the humane treatment of animals and teaching responsibility in caring for one's pet(s).

[Julee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Texas 2 x 2 list.

[Marcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great example of a small event personal narrative. The Arvada Center play was great and that made it a great way to introduce this to teachers.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is kind of wordy but it is wordy in a fun way. It is a celebration of family and quirky individuals. My kids enjoyed it.

[Morgan]

This book shows how a family is able to learn how to make a sticky situation work when they bring their dog to a no dogs allowed beach.

[Jesica Sabrina Canto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es interesante en este relato la presencia de un narrador en primera persona infantil, que esta bien logrado. Se describen a los personajes y se cuentan los hechos tal como los piensa y comprende una niña pequeña. La trama es simple y alegre. Considero que un niño/a puede disfrutarlo, pero no creo que sea de esos libros de los que te enamoras. Las ilustraciones, podría decirse que, son barrocas, cargadas de muchos personajes y detalles. Esto puede resultar interesante para un lector infantil porque puede quedarse observándolas detenidamente tratando de ubicar que personaje dibujado coincide con la descripción escrita.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iris, who lives in the Bronx, in the kingdom of 3rd Ave, shares a tale of the time her family, and few neighborhood friends decided to spend the day at lake in the Enchanted State Park, and how they overcame the problem of El Exigente, her dog not being allowed in the park. A humorous tale of problem solving, and family togetherness.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young girl takes an eventful vacation with a very large extended family--and one lazy canine. But what happens when their lakeside vacation destination has a dreaded "No Dogs Allowed" sign?

This is a clever, but very wordy picture book. It's doubtful younger kids or those with shorter attention spans will be able to sit through this one for the entire story.

[Lexi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very wordy and lovely

[Xochi Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever and full of life!

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manzano Street #1
The long running actor on Sesame Street has written a bunch of books and this is one of them, good beginning but it didn't grab me all the way through, youngsters may enjoy.