It's Hard to Read a Map With a Beagle on Your Lap

by Marilyn Singer, Clément Oubrerie (Illustrator)

A collection of poems features picky Pekingese, galumphing Saint Bernards, madcap mongrels, and many other crazy canines as they eat, sleep, romp, dream, confuse, bemuse, and amuse.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens

Hardcover

First published May 1, 1993

About the author

Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx (New York City) on October 3, 1948 and lived most of her early life in N. Massapequa (Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, and for her junior year, Reading University, England. She holds a B.A. in English from Queens and an M.A. in Communications from New York University.

In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E.P.Dutton & Co.

Since then, Marilyn has published over seventy books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it's challenging and it keeps her from getting bored. She has won several Children's Choice and Parents' Choice Awards, as well as the following: the Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist's Top Ten Science Books of 2000; NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can't Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children's Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.

Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle Oggi, a cousin of their beloved and recently departed poodle Easy, seen in the home page photo; a cat named August ; two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday; and a starling named Darling. Her interests include dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, meditation, playing computer adventure games and going to the movies and the theatre. She's also a major Star Trek fan.

Reviews

[Stephen Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book. Very cute and funny pictures. It would be great to read to a child. It is a book of rhymes with pictures to go along with them. Other than the title rhyme, this one is my favorite and appears in one of the first few pages:

Nothing on a bulldog's face
Seems to have a proper place
His eyelids droop
His jaws are square
His jowls are beyond compare
His nose looks like he's had a fight
He's got a great big underbite
You look at him and have to hoot
He's so ugly that
he's cute

I think the other rhymes are not so great but fun enough. It would be great fun to rhyme along with a child with sudden changes in tempo.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would’ve been cute if it had been more respectful of dogs. I found some of the passages to be off the mark and a bit speciesist. There are other books out there I would use to introduce dogs to children.
I did find the format unique and enjoyed that aspect of the book but not enough to overlook its flaws.

[Taira Meadowcroft · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cute children's book. It's full of poems about many different breeds of dogs. The poems are silly and entertaining. A bit long though, so not sure how much this would grab a little kid's attention, but I like how this introduces different breeds of dogs to children.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, this is a great book for dog/animal lovers with lots of poems about dogs.

[Ainsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is so funny. William would really really like this book.

[Kristy Mcghee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious. Love all the twists and turns. This adds to visual appeal along with the vibrant colors