I liked this book for a number of reasons. One thing that I really liked about this story was the plot. The author does a great job of organizing the plot by explaining why Martha can talk in the beginning of the story (because she ate alphabet soup), incorporating a problem in the middle of the story, and resolving this issue by the end. Throughout the story, I thought that Bob was a mean, evil dog and was anxious to find out what would happen when Martha stood up to him. I like how the story ends by revealing why Bob was acting this way. The conflict in this story is suspenseful and keeps the reader engaged; however, the change of pace when resolving the issue also keeps the readers attention. Another reason that I really liked this book was because of the authors writing and illustrations. There are bubbles above the illustrations of Martha that show what she is thinking and saying throughout the book. I thought that this enhanced the story by developing Martha's character very well and allowing the reader to get a sense of what she is like. The author also incorporates humor throughout that story which keeps the book interesting and makes it fun to read. For example, when Martha is being chased by Bob there are bubbles of what she is saying to him such as, "Go Home", "Bad dog", "Monstrous Mutt", "You Mangy Mongrel", "Crummy Cur", "Big Baboon", and "Help!" Although this is a suspenseful event in the story, the author provides some comic relief with Martha's silly comments as she's running away. I also really like that the illustrations in this story look like they were done with water color. It is a different style that I have not seen in many other stories and thought it added a lot to the book overall. Two illustrations that stood out to me in particular were the illustrations of Bob when he was first introduced into the story and the one of him at the end of the story when the issue is resolved. Both of these illustrations of him are close up, taking up the entire page, and really portray his emotions and his character. He appears very scary and beast-like in the first one, and the illustration of him is surrounded by the color red. In the second illustration at the end of the book, Bob has a big smile on his face and looks very friendly; in this picture he is surrounded by the color yellow. These details and use of color really help the reader get a sense of the mood and characteristics of the characters. Overall, I believe that the message in this story is that pets, even people, respond best to kindness, and it portrays the effectiveness of the simple power of praise. ( )

I thought this book was okay, but my son was really startled by the mean dog, when we turned to the page where the dog's leash had come off he literally froze. The second time we read it he asked me to skip the pages with the barking dog, and after that he didn't want to have anything more to do with the book, anyway. I thought it was kind of harmless, because all is well in the end, but I guess he's just really sensitive ... ( )

Martha walks the dog, is a lovely canine that every single day enjoy his walk. One if his neighbored has a bad dog and all the time is barking at him and his owner yelling and screaming at him. The situation is that art the beginning they are enemies but Martha uses his strategies in order to put peace in his neighborhood. She teaches to say “good dog” to the neighbor parrot and at and all of them are good friends.

Martha, the talking dog, discovers that praise is more powerful than criticism in making dogs behave well. Also that it is stupid to taunt dangerous creatures just because you think they're restrained. And that all dogs really ARE good, even if some of them seem bad at first. ( )