“Perfectly Martha” by Susan Meddaugh
Susan Meddaugh’s Martha Speaks and its sequels became the basis for the current PBS Kids show–one of the better ones that’s more watchable for parents, in my opinion. Our family discovered the TV show first, then sought out the books from our library. Thus far, 5yo Drake and 3yo Guppy have enjoyed Martha Blah Blah, Martha Calling, though they don’t like Martha Walks the Dog, which has a mean, big dog. But we all enjoy Perfectly Martha, my favorite.
Martha is a dog who learns to speak English after she eats alphabet soup and the letters go to her brain. When a shifty man comes to town and promises dog owners he can train the pets to be perfect pups in a day, Martha is suspicious.
“Hmmmph!” Martha said to Skits. “Dogs are perfect already.”
Clever Martha figures out the scam, and goes about fixing things in her own talkative, assertive manner. She is a charming, capable heroine, and this book seems especially aimed at dog owners who love their pets, quirks and all. My sister Sydney would love it.
February 9th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
My daughter likes Martha speaks. I’m not as big of a fan though - I have other one’s I like better, but I can see why a lot of kids would really like it and she is one of them. She absolutely adores dogs and wishes ours could speak like Martha.
February 10th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Interestingly, we just got Martha Speaks this week along with Martha and Skits, and the boys don’t like Martha Speaks because the family gets mad at her and yells “Shut up!”
I’m interested to see how they love some of them and not others, and how those don’t always coincide with how I feel. I’m not wild about the messages in Martha and Skits, but they love it.