Kira Castle

Dr. Burke
ENGL 414A
September 9, 2015
LSW: Picture Books
The title of the picture book that I chose is Dear Mrs. LaRue,
Letters from Obedience School, written and illustrated by Mark
Teague. It is a picture book about a dog, Ike, who is sent to obedience
school because his owner felt that he needed to be trained. The book is
written from the point of view of Ike, sending letters to his owner. The
pictures in the book are very detailed, and do a great job portraying
both the realities of the time Ike spends in obedience school, and his
perception of the situation. Teague does this very well; he has the real
pictures in color, and the imagination of Ike in black and white. Doing
this creates a very funny and appealing feel, because you know what is
actually happening to Ike, while you also hear his falsified complaints.
Another thing I really enjoyed about the picture book was that the text
was formatted like letters. It was a really clever way to present the
story line. It also made it easy for the reader to distinguish how much
time was passing by, due to the fact that each individual letter was
dated. A third thing I liked about the story was the character of the
dog, Ike. His personality was colorful and humorous. It was funny to
see a dogs perspective on obedience school. This made the book very

childish and fun to read. And finally, another aspect of the picture book
that I enjoyed was how it is enjoyable for a large range of readers. It is
something that I think would be great to read to a class, while at the
same time I enjoyed reading it myself. There were certain parts that
had more advanced humor, and caught my attention. I remember this
book from my childhood and how much I enjoyed it. And now looking
back at it today, I still think it is a very well written and illustrated
picture book.