Also disturbing to me is the author's attitude toward women. Any complaining woman is described as "spinsterish." The "Cat Lady" whose cats the author set his dog on to attack and kill was described as harboring "yearning hope" for a male intruder to come and presumably do things to her that I don't want to refer to in a review that children may read -- the implication is pretty strong, with a reference also to the Sabine women.

I may get flamed for this review, but I feel that these are very poor attitudes to be subtly or unsubtly conveying to children. I find it very unfortunate because I endorse the author's work as a naturalist.


Not just for children anymore   January 10, 2001
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book is clasified as a childrens book and while my children have read and enjoyed it, I have shared it with many of my adult friends. It is truly a book for all ages. I am fortunate to have the hardback edition but I have ordered no less than ten paperback copies over the years and I give them to people who love animals. If you are one of those people who have, at some time, shared a special bond with a pet, you should read this book.


Crazy dog in Canada   November 28, 2000
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

When my daughter was small, her repeated request was 'read about the skunks, Daddy.' I don't think it was the topic (crazy dog, hyperactive kid, sleeping skunk, dirt basement, dead of winter and a garden hose) as much as even after having read it to her dozens of times I still broke up when I got to the line beginning 'A rich golden haze...' (I just cracked up writing this.)

This is a book for anyone who has ever loved a dog or a squirrel or a chipmonk or a garter snake or ever rode a two wheeler and pretended it was a horse or walked in a field or wished 'why didn't I ...'

No child should be forced to grow up without watching their parents snort coffee through their nose while trying to read 'The Dog Who Wouldn't Be.'


The lighter side of Farley Mowat   May 31, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is a light-hearted book by Farley Mowat, a writer with whom we normally associate more serious texts. Yet Mowat is just as fun-loving as the next person and it comes out in this collection of stories about his youth in Ontario and Manitoba. Mutt, the dog of the book's title, is a dog who very reasonably refuses to act like one. So he won't hunt ducks properly or do much else that is reckoned too dog-like, at least while anyone's watching. Mutt was Mowat's constant companion throughout many boyhood forays into the wild country around wherever he happened to be living. On the prairies in the 1920s and 30s, he says, it was easy to get out in the bush, because it started right where the town stopped. You just had to walk out. So began Farley Mowat's lifelong love of the natural world. Indeed, he made a pretty good naturalist by the age of ten and earned himself a minor living for a time, through the dubious activity of collecting birds' eggs. This is an easy book to get along with and one that would probably be enjoyed by children. Indeed, I assume it may well have been intended for Mowat's own children. I thoroughly recommend it.


An all-time favorite   May 12, 2000
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I read this for the first time when I was in about 6th or 7th grade and loved it. It was my introduction to Farley Mowat and since then I have read many of his other works.

This book is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. I loved it 30 years ago when I was a kid (maybe 11 or 12) and I enjoyed it again last year.

The story is about the life and times of Mutt, the dog that entered the Mowat family and grew up with Farley. Mutt is all dog and a little more. Frustrated with the local cat population and their dominance of the fencetop and rooftop world, he learns to walk fence tops. He develops hunting and retrieving techniques that are the talk of the country -- literally! Each chapter is a new story, a new adveneture into the life of Mutt.