Review: Barky the Barking Dog

I had a dog like Barky. This story could be about her. Barky does one thing day and night. He barks. It doesn’t matter whether he looks up or down. He barks. It doesn’t matter if he sees a butterfly, a bird, a rose or a giant’s toes, for ‘how to bark is all he knows.’

In the street or in the park, at a bee or at a tree, all Barky does is bark.

The illustrations are cartoon-like and extremely expressive. It’s what readers will look at first - as I did, to see what the dog is doing, how and why.

Funny, repetitive and full of sounds, Barky the Barking Dog is delightfully entertaining. The book with its loud orange cover depicts Barky in all his activities (with tiny pictures of the author and illustrator in the corners). The rhyming verse speaks to all dog owners about a dog that could easily be their pet.

Barky is from the 13-Storey Treehouse books and has been formatted for beginner readers. There is a whole selection of these titles under the umbrella series of A Little Treehouse Story.

Title: Barky the Barking Dog (A Little Treehouse Story)
Author: Andy Griffiths
Illustrator: Terry Denton
Publisher: Pan Macmillan, $6.99 RRP
Publication Date: 1 March 2015
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781743532980
For ages: 5 - 7
Type: Junior Fiction