MEET DOCTOR DOLITTLE.
Adaptedfrom Hugh Lofting's classic story. By AlPerkins '25. Illustrated by Leon Jason,New York: Random House, 1967. 22 pp.$1.50.
Duke is a city pet-shop dog with latent talents. After being rescued from the hard stone floor of the pet shop by his purchaser Sammy Brown, he discovers that as an outdoor dog he has a few things to learn. He is the only dog in the neighborhood who doesn't know how to dig. After some false starts and a sleepless night he discovers that he can dig, but then he carries things too far.
For either a beginning reader or a child being read to, the vocabulary is simple and fairly small, but not simple-minded. The verse is bouncy and very pleasing. My objection is that poor Duke is not given his due. He states, "I dug and dug to please my master." At no point was he accorded any recognition that in spite of all the havoc he caused he was only trying to please.
As a parent, I feel that having Duke drowning in a well is a bit of unnecessary horror. Chastened by Sammy and the dogs in some way, he could then have proceeded to dig everything back without a calamity that has happened disastrously for too many children.
The happy channeling of Duke's talent into a useful service is a satisfying solution. My three-year-old daughter stopped me after reading one-third of the book and said, "I like this." What more needs to be said?
Travels of Dr. Dolittle is a good beginner's reader. The story is interesting and clear with a good basic vocabulary. Except for one character set, the illustrations are not up to the story. Dr. Dolittle is far too expressionless to be interesting for long, and for my taste the monkeys look too much like brown children with tails. On the other hand, the natives were wonderfully anonymous. Their masks and unusual clothes kept them from being identified with any particular group.
Although I'm not fond of seeing Rex Harrison popping out at me from every page, Meet Dr. Dolittle is a first-rate story to read to a younger child. There is enough detail to hold the interest without bogging down. The variety and clarity of the animal illustrations add greatly to the excellence of the book.
Mother of two small daughters and firstflutist in the Hanover Community Orchestra,Mrs. Karl F. Kuhlmann is the wife of anassistant professor of Chemistry at Dartmouth.
