Book Review: Bow Wow Meow Meow: It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs

Written and Illustrated by: Douglas Florian
Published by: Hartcourt, Inc., 2003
ISBN: 0-15-216395-6

Plot Summary

Bow Wow Meow Meow is a collection of poems about cats and dogs. Florian divides the poems up by breed, covering such popular ones as the Bloodhound, Poodle, Dalmatian, panther, and lion. Each poem is accompanied by an illustration of the animal.

Critical Analysis

The first thing one notices about this book is its bright pink cover. This is a book that will stand out on the shelves and is sure to delight those that seek it out or just happen to grab it based on the pop of color it provides. The cover illustration is an interesting one that turns the tables on the old story of dogs chasing cats. It features a cat with its mouth wide open and a dog inside, holding a bone in its jaw.

The illustrations throughout the book are fairly simple line drawings, but many contain fun details. The illustration for Dog Log shows inside a dog's brain and all the thoughts he is contemplating. These include fetch, smells, roll over, wag and other dog-related thoughts.

The illustration for The Siamese is another that will delight the reader. It shows a large Siamese cat holding a man in its paw. Any cat owner will know that the cat is really the one running the show. The drawing reflects the poem's assertion that states "And I'm the boss, you know, Not you!"

Florian seems to almost play with the words in the poems, using funny and punny sayings in his works. In The Whippet, he cleverly uses the dog's name since it sounds similar to "whip it": "The whipper speeds with ease and grace. Few dogs can whippet in a race."

Onomatopoeia is used to great effect in The Chihuahua. He plays off the small dog's reputation of excessive barking and uses its name to mimic its sound. "But it can bark a brouhaha: ¡Chi-hua! ¡hua! ¡hua! ¡hua! ¡hua! ¡hua! ¡hua!"

Florian also makes use of the typography to add extra flair to a few poems. In The Dalmatian he uses assonance with the repetition of the short o sound. Each of those o's is a black spot, mimicking the spots on the dalmatian's white coat. In The Poodle, the text is written in curly cues, to match the dog's curly coat, rather than in straight lines.

Review Excerpt

From Publishers Weekly, published February 10, 2003

"While a few paintings may seem over the top (e.g., the bloodhound is surrealistically depicted as having a nose that houses a smaller hound), most are exceedingly clever." 

Connections

The short and funny poems in this book really lend themselves to being read out loud. Students can select a poem to read alone or in groups and prepare simple costumes to match the type of dog or cat their poem is about. They could also make puppets and use those to read the poem.