Rating: WARTY!
This is part of a series featuring an anthropomorphized dog, Waldo, who travels far and wide and reports back on what he finds. It's aimed at young children, but even so, I was disappointed in how blinkered and condescending the perspective was. The reason I was curious about this volume - the first in this series that I've read - was that it features a visit to Texas, something I know a little bit about!
I know you can't write a children's book the same way you would a more mature book, but neither do I believe you should demean children by simplifying things too much. For me, that was the problem here. I found it rather insulting in many ways. For example, the only observations the dog had with regard to Austin were flowers and how hot the chili was. There was nothing about music, nothing about technology, nothing about how fast the city is growing, nothing about the river - and nothing about the heat! Pretty much the only topic they offered for Houston was oil. There was nothing about the space program or about hurricanes for that matter. In fact, nature was pretty much ignored, with places being reduced to cook-outs, line-dancing, and cattle drives. Apart from the Alamo, there was virtually nothing about landmarks, scenery, and wildlife. It was really disappointing.
I understand that this was a short book, that children can't be bombarded with cold facts, and that children's books need to be relatively simple, colorful, and fun, and while the artwork, done I assume by Vladimir Kirichenko, was good, this doesn't mean we should underserve kids, or treat them like they're not capable of understanding more. You can't raise children up by talking down.
I get that you don't want to launch into a discussion of the Kennedy assassination when you're talking about Dallas, but given that we're celebrating the Alamo here, which has a claim to fame centered in a massacre, why would a mention that President Kennedy died in Dallas not have a place? If you don't want to talk about a death, then why not talk about births? Buddy Holly was born in Texas, as was Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame, and Bessie Coleman, pioneering African American civil aviator. If you want more "modern" celebrities, Kelly Clarkson was born in Texas, as was Beyoncé, Jim Parsons, Robert Rodriguez, Erykah Badu, Carly Fiorina, and so on. It's not just cattle drives and line dancing!
I know Texas and places like Houston have roots soaked in oil, but is that what we want children to take home from this when Texas is also awash in alternative energy? It bothered me that here was a chance to give children something expansive and educational, yet it was frittered away, and that's why I can't positively rate a book like this.
