Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers

by Laura Joffe Numeroff, Joe Mathieu (Illustrator)

Dogs don’t wear sneakers, pigs don’t wear hats, and dresses look silly on Siamese cats.

Animals would look pretty silly doing a lot of the things that people do all the time. The unlikely combinations in Laura Numeroff’s cheerful rhymes and Joe Mathieu’s bright, zany pictures will make you laugh out loud. What sort of crazy creatures can you dream up?

Genres: Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Fiction, Dogs, Humor, School

40 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1993

About the author

Laura Joffe Numeroff is the NYT best-selling author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, What Mommies/Daddies Do Best and Raising a Hero. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from Pratt Institute. Laura grew up as the youngest of three girls, surrounded by art, music, and books. An avid animal lover, Laura has always wanted to write a book about service dogs. She now lives in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews

[Sirah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Animals don't wear clothes, but it's fun to imagine.

I have no idea what the point of this book is, but it's really fun to read, which is a goal in itself.

[Dorothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s about imagination. It talks about all these things that animals can’t do, like dogs don’t wear sneakers and dresses look silly on Siamese cats. Then the book asks the reader to close their eyes and draw with their mind, because in their dreams they might find ducks riding bikes or snails saving twine. It's a silly book just showcases the things that children might imagine like pigs flying planes or dogs wearing sneakers, and so many other things. That illustrations showcase all of the things that the book is suggesting that animals do.

My thoughts: I really liked this book because it's about imagining things that we know don't actually happen in real life. Like pigs flying planes. It's just such a fun book to read. It's perfectly showcases the imaginations that children have when they're younger but can lose as they get older and I for one had a great time reading this book because it reminded me of being a kid. It reminded me of when my friends a I used to talk about the imaginary dragons that we wanted or what it would be like to be mermaids. You lose that as you get older and it's refreshing to get that back even just for a little while by reading a book such as this one.

Use in classroom: I'd use this book as a read-aloud for younger students, and for older students I would choose this book as well a few other books at the beginning of the year that showcase imagination to start out the year and get their imaginations started. To keep them from losing that aspect of themselves.

[E.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you do not think that a children's book could teach an almost-thirty person some thing, I'll tell you that I was just as surprised when I read through Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers. I learned something new about Gnus. Like for the sheer fact that they exist and not in some Dr. Seuss mess, this is legit.
Where were gnus when I was in school?! G stood for giraffe. For 12+ years. I hope more elementary schools stand up and take note! Gnus aren't new, and should be included in the curriculum. So, when these kids grow up and they pick up an innocuous children's book and flip through they aren't scrambling to a search engine to figure out something that the American education system couldn't be bothered to admin. (As you can see, I'm very bothered by it.)

BUT this book was whimsically magical, beautifully illustrated, and far too short (even for the kiddies, its intended audience).

[Paul Large · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, as this book calls for the readers to use their imagination by saying, "Now just close your eyes and draw with your mind. You might be surprised at what you will find..." I love that Laura Numeroff put this in the story because it specifically states that it wants the reader to think. The story itself is great because the story creates great imagery. Maybe in a child's world dogs do wear shoes, and I believe that the reader is the most important person and that is what the author is implying. No matter what a person's background is, I believe that anyone should read this book for fun. This book can be also used in many ways in the classroom and in the home setting. Ants in my world wear pants and every animal has a characteristic that makes them unique. But we are all on the earth living together.

[Kennady · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Dogs don't wear sneakers and don't wear hats" this story is full of imagination and animals. This is about what kinds of things are pictured in dreams. There are many different animals mentioned in many things they normally wouldn't do.

I gave this book 5 stars, I thought that this book was engaging and kept me wondering what was going to come next. Along with that, I thought that the illustrations were great with all of the details.

[Emily Gerstenschlager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 6/9/21
Grade: K-2
Genre: fiction, poetry
This is a fun book. It will help students with learning about personification and imagery in their writing. The animals are all doing crazy things that they normally don't do, and the book asks the reader to close their eyes and imagine all the things they are describing. I like how the end of the book asks what the reader would imagine and it can be anything they want because they are creating it.

[Viviana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of fun for grades PK through 2nd. Numeroff brings great imagination as well as learning opportunities for younger students in terms of using your imagination, what a dream is, and the different types of animals there are in the world. The rhyming also adds another creative element. In addition, the illustrations are creative as well with a lot of detail.

[Rainey Rew · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books since I was a child! I used to sleep with this book in my bed and it was just gifted to me from one of my teachers in my student teaching since it was one of her favorites too. The children love this story and all of the pictures. I love how imaginative and creative it is. I could see this book being used for any child!

[Kiersten Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all about children and their imagination. The book takes students through different animals and what they do not wear or do, such as dogs wearing sneakers or bears taking a bath in a bathtub. This book can be used for students to challenge their imagination and think of things that do and do not happen in the real world.

[Maki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny story, similar to Chimps Don't Wear Glasses. The students and I really enjoyed the illustrations in the books as well, because there was so much going on in each detailed and colourful drawing. We laughed through the whole book.

[Stephanie Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very simple story with silly pictures to entertain kids. I used just a little piece of it to teach a lesson to first graders and they were sad that I didn't get to read the entire book to them at that time. The underlying message is that we can all have different dreams and ideas.

[Becca Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another silly little book. It is very similar to "Chimps Don't Wear Glasses". It has the same ideas as the other book as well. Just use your imagination and anything can happen. You ideas and thoughts don't have to be confided to certain rules.

[Emma Breidenbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun entertaining book for children in early elementary school. I read this book to my practicum class and they absolutely loved the silliness and rhyming sentences in the book. After we did a fun lesson on writing our own silly sentences that could be in the book.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book! It is silly and fun. It moves quickly. But take time to look at the illustrations...they so beautifully depict what is happening in the story. Wonderful!

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a child’s imagination, animals do wacky things including ducks riding bikes, yaks skiing and fish eating bagels.

Great illustrations. Funny stuff.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites!

[Mae · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story time with the grand babies is always my favorite and they loved all the silly things the animals did.

[Brianna Canales · Rating 5 out of 5]

animals, funny, creative

[Alana Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all about dogs doing silly things that we don't see a dog do in real life. It has many kinds of dogs doing similar things like working and dressing up. These dogs don't where sneakers in real life but in this book they do.

I would like to use this book when it is around time for a fun easy read. This book could get students to think of what possibly the dogs could do next and that is brainstorming. I think this book is great for the imagination.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book except for the last couple pages which were just ok.

[Collin Duax]

This book was like all of Laura's books. Funny and creative.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A silly book that encourages the reader to imagine more silly things.

[Kenneth Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silly, similar to Roger Miller’s song “you can’t roller skate in a Buffalo Heard”. Simple book but fun to hear my son imagine crazy things like the book said after we read it.

[Emylly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Random but funny pictures and creative rhymes

[Sherry Scheline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cute little read. Yaks don’t ski! 🎿

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silly rhymes and fun loving illustrations - My husband told me about this book while we were dating as one he remembered from childhood vividly, and now he reads it to our kiddos :)

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great concept of a book. I love how the words say one thing and the pictures show another.

[Payton⭐️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little story about imagining. I loved it and the rhymes were awesome and so were the visuals.

[Tracy Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good "silly" book...fairly easy read