Title: Animal Races
Author: Jack Rotifer
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 979-8-8230-6634-1
Pages: 40
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book / Educational
Reviewer: Beth Adams

Read Book Review

In this polished illustrated child’s book, heavily laden with pictures and text of personified dogs and other animals, author Jack Rotifer introduces readers to three Yorkie Terriers with adorable names – Jingle, Jaywok, and Joi Daisy. The trio have many animal friends including horses, mini donkeys, peacocks, chickens, turkeys, parrots, other dogs, cats, a chinchilla, a tortoise and alpacas. All the animals are different and it’s ok to be different, a subtle sub-theme of this book.

As the dogs are frolicking and racing around their backyard, their human parents enjoy watching them so much that they come up with the idea of planning a vacation and touring the country specifically to attend other animal racing events. So, with this underlying theme, they embark on many events in their camper van. First off, the Kentucky Derby to see the oldest traditional horse race in the country. It is here the author educates readers on the customs and ceremony of this event, and Joi Daisy gets to “talk” to a retired racehorse named Beauty about how it feels to be a part of such a spectacular event. The amount of background information is truly impressive as the text of this book explains the history and tradition of the race to readers through the eyes of this Yorkie trio.

The family then goes further on their vacation and systematically attend a dog agility race, then piglet racing at a state fair, then on to pigeon racing and finally to Virginia City, Nevada to attend the world-famous Camel races which include ostriches and zebras. Each event is articulated with background information combined with the enthusiasm for having the first time witnessing, once again, through the innocent eyes of these playful Yorkies.

The narration of this book combines elements of adventure, excitement, history and animal behavior. Animal Races pages as an ideal bedtime story as well as a get-away for reading on a rainy day, ideal for youngsters being read too or even beginning to read on their own. The ending of the book shows the Yorkies sleeping on their pillow-bed but having their paws “twitching” as they are dreaming about running in a race themselves.

Animal Races would be a good gift to a young family’s library and enjoyed by all children as the fascination of animals and the love for dogs, which are a commonality in children’s worlds. Jack Rotifer has created a book with an abundance of text highlighted with images to have children enjoy learning about so many competitive displays of various animals’ abilities. One could feel the rumble of the racetrack of the Kentucky Derby, as well as the agility of the dog track, the slop of the piglets, and the inherent humor of camel racing. The final race for readers is to close their eyes and race off to dreamland.  Young readers will enjoy following the racers while discovering that every animal has its own abilities and strengths.