2 out of 4 stars
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I grew up with dogs as a child and loved the heck out of them. When Grover, the dog we took in when I was only a few years old, would do something wrong she'd hide in the corner of the living room behind a nightstand, and I started doing that myself when I got older. It's weird to write it down and think about it, but I guess I actually learned a lot about guilt and being a good person to avoid feeling guilty from my times hiding there. My parents never hit me or even yelled at me really, but there's a shame from letting people down or doing something wrong, and even Grover knew that!
As such, I can certainly see why Grampa Farkas and Sydney Corrigan would feel inspired to write a children's book series - Sassy and Taffy Adventures - about their own dogs! In Trash Day Terror for Sassy and Taffy, the third book in the series (which totally works as a stand-alone book), Sassy and Taffy hear the sound of the trash truck coming by and get frightened. Their Grampa Farkas is there to settle them down, but then it comes by a second time and they can't help but imagine that it's come back to get them!
The book alternates between the story's text and photographs that fit with what's been written previously. The writing portions are typically a few short paragraphs, certainly enough to read with some enthusiasm to one's children aloud before showing them the next photo but not so much that they'll be bored. I also appreciated that there are plenty of moments for really getting passionate with acting it out.
The photos, on the other hand, range from adorable to super pixelated. I reviewed a PDF file of this book, and the Amazon sample is too short to show any of the photos aside from the cover, so I can't be certain if the photos are any better in the Kindle or paperback versions of the book. In the PDF version 7 out of 9 of the photos are pixelated, a few of which are so bad it looked like a tiny image was blown up to three or four times their original size. This is made even more obvious due to the same photo being used three times, even though one of them is hilariously photoshopped in the best of ways.
Trash Day Terror for Sassy and Taffy certainly isn't a bad book, but it's not great either. I found no errors with the writing, but without being able to verify that the images in the final version of the book are any better, the quality of the photos really knocks the overall book down. The book also has no actual lesson to impart, although a parent may be able to apply the story to their own children to show that they should feel just as safe as Sassy and Taffy with their Grampa. I could still see recommending the book to those with dogs, but again the photo quality makes it very difficult to do that. I'd give the book 2.5 stars if I could, but since I can't, I'm rating it 2 out of 4 stars. If the photos were high quality it would easily be worthy of 3. Also, I've got to admit that the co-writing team of 6-year-old Sydney with her Grampa is awesome!
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Trash Day Terror for Sassy and Taffy
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