Talking Tails: The Incredible Connection Between People and Their Pets

by Ann Love, Bill Slavin, Jane Drake

Pets and their owners appear together in a book as heartwarming as it is informative. From our earliest beginnings, we have shared our lives with animals. Jane Drake and Ann Love explore the ties that humans and their pets have formed. With fun and fascinating facts, they address Dog People and Cat People. (Why does a cat wind around her owner's legs? She's rubbing her owner with glands on her face to say "you're mine.") They also introduce us to more unusual pets. There's Polly the parrot, who lived through the Klondike Gold Rush to be 126 years old by belting back whiskey, swearing, and biting gold miners. And, of course, there are fish and reptiles, rodents and horses, all of whom can be beloved pets. As useful as it is fun, Talking Tails is a must for children who have or want a pet.

Genres: Nonfiction

80 pages, Hardcover

First published April 13, 2010

About the author

Jane Drake and Ann Love are a sister writing duo. Together they have published 25 non-fiction titles for junior/intermediate students. Their first book to hit the bestseller list was The Kids Cottage Book published in 1992. Since then they have written many bestsellers and award winners including Cool Woods: A Trip Around the World's Boreal Forest (2003), The Kids Book of the Night Sky (2004), Snow Amazing: Cool Facts and Warm Tales (2004), and Trash Action: A Fresh Look at Garbage (2006), Sweet! The Delicious Story of Candy (2007), Alien Invaders: Species that Threaten Our World (2008). Ann and Jane have shared a lifelong love of the outdoors enjoying everything from snow shoeing, to camping, bird watching, tree planting and photography. They get along magnificently, except on the tennis court.

Ann lives near King, Ontario. She was a teacher librarian for many years but has retired to concentrate on writing. She is an accomplished artist, enjoying painting watercolors of the wild plants near her home. Ann stalks and patrols at least five bird feeders year round, often dropping the phone on her sister's ear to chase her cat away from the chickadees. Skookum, her pup, insists on several walks a day. Ann would love to visit India.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very cute nonfiction book about the connection between animals and people. It is broken down into four basic sections. The first section is called Pets and people: Hearts and Smarts. This section is really short and explains the brain chemistry involved in loving a pet. It’s done in a very good way so that even kids can understand what is going on in our brains and why we fall in love with them. The second section is called Different Pets for Different Folks. This section goes through fish, birds, reptiles, rodents, and horses. This is a quick page or so for each type of animal. The third section is A Cat in the Family. This begins a rather large section about cats. It goes through the transition of wild cats to domesticated cats and then a few stories about cats. My favorite part in this section is called “I’m a Cat Person.” My mom is a cat person and it really reminded me of her. The last section is called A Dog in the Family. This does the same type of thing that the cat section does. It goes through wild dogs into domesticated dogs. There are more about breeds in this section and puppies, but basically it is the same type of thing as the cat one. As I am a dog person, this was definitely my favorite section. I am a dog person and match their description pretty much to perfection.
Another great part of this book is that it has a time line that runs along the bottom of each page. This time line shows significant dates in history that involve pets. For example, my favorite was on A.D. 79 in Italy. It says “Italy: a dog lies across a child to save him when the city of Pompeii is smothered in volcanic ash. Years later, among the remains, archeologists find the dog’s silver collar, revealing that its name was Delta and that it had saved its master, Severinus, three times.” Honestly, these little tidbits of information was well worth reading this book.
All in all, I loved this book. I think that it would be an asset to any parents/teachers library. Share this with your children and enjoy it yourselves as well. Just be warned, if you are not ready for a pet, you will be by the end of the book.

5 out of 5 stars

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This juvenile nonfiction selection is a look at a variety of pets and their relationships with human beings throughout history. While most of the material is good, I did have a few concerns about certain parts of the text.

-The authors present keeping cats indoors vs. outdoors as both acceptable choices, although they ask those who "live near traffic" to "consider" an indoor cat. Those who select outdoors are advised to put a belled collar on Tabby (an all but pointless endeavor) and keep the animal indoors at night. Considering all of the hazards outdoor and indoor/outdoor cats may encounter--coyotes and other predators, traps, antifreeze and other poisons, cruel people, feline leukemia, and the biggest of all, traffic--this laissez-faire advice seems irresponsible.

-The section on dogs names pet stores as a possible option for obtaining a puppy, "but you have to take the owner's word on lineage, kennel, and past care." *Face palm.* No pet store owner or employee is going to detail the source of their dogs, which the vast majority of the time is going to be a puppy mill. The text goes on to suggest youngsters "ask around and find out if the pet store has a good reputation," but this seems like both a cop-out and a rather difficult burden to put on a child. Pet stores' deception regarding the sources of their dogs is well-documented.

[Mary BookHounds · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not only adorable but it is full of facts about dogs, cats and other pet-type animals. There is also a fascinating time line about animals that runs through the whole book at the bottom of each page. Obviously, I am a dog person, but the stories in the book gave the pros and cons about each animal and would help a child decide which would be the best pet for their family. There is also a great poster that folds out from the dust jacket. This would make an excellent gift to any child who adores animals or a child's library.

[Vincy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love children's books. And I love pets. Yet this book fell flat for me. The stories had the potential to be interesting, but they jumped from thought to thought so rapidly that I almost had trouble following it. I'd worry that children wouldn't make the jumps as readily. [return][return]Also, the artwork is a bit washed out. It is still cute, though.[return][return]I don't pretend to know what children will like, especially seeing as how all children are different, but there wasn't anything particularly special or memorable about this book.

[Libraryscat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. What a wonderful book for children to learn about animals and how to care for them. Although all the basics are covered, the author provides another level of learning with her timeline which cotninues on each page, telling us the known origins of the species being discussed. The illustrations are delightful and I plan on sharing this book with my grandchildren. I also plan to recommend the book to my Curriculum Materials Library.

[JennLynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to companion animals. A timeline of interesting animal-related events throughout history plus plenty of fun facts and trivia. A particular focus on cats and dogs. Packs a lot of information in a slim volume - perfect for keeping middle schoolers' interest.

[Nicole "Coley" Klem]

What a cute book!! 'Talking Tails' gently explores the relationship between people and their pets in a way that makes it understandable for children and still interesting for adults. A quick read for adults, the grown up reader may be drawn to the time line of animals-as-pets spanning the bottom of each page. I can see an animal loving child reading this book over and over, or a family using it when thinking about getting a pet. Cats and dogs get most of the pages, but horses, fish, rodents, and birds are also discussed. There are lots of cute stories sprinkled among the pages- my personal favorite was about a service dog and her young companion. Over all I think 'Talking Tails' is a great book for a young animal fan. The illustrations are very cute and there is a lot of good knowledge presented in an easy-to-digest manner.