MVP, Most Valuable Puppy is simple, animal & kid kidlit

The premise behind MVP, Most Valuable Puppy is so kid friendly and happy it sounds familiar. In fact, there may well be another book that parallels this story to some extent. One of the curve balls in MVP is that the author’s of the book are donating the profits to Heidi’s Angels; a group that helps fight Pediatric Cancer via V Foundation for Cancer Research. The book’s author has name cache also in that it’s ESPN Host Mike Greenberg and his wife, Stacy Steponate Greenberg.

As a book MVP, Most Valuable Puppy is cute, heart-warming stuff that mirrors Greenberg’s own home situation to an extent. It’s told from the perspective of Phoebe, an active rescue puppy who likes balls and eating crumbs off of the floor.

“Why are they trapping those dogs”, our 6 year-old asked as he looked at an illustration of the family adopting Phoebe from the animal shelter. I assured him that they weren’t trapping the dogs and that the animals were looking for a home. He’s been to our local animal shelter dozens of times; apparently the floor to ceiling cages threw him for a loop.

In this case the family adopts Phoebe and she goes home to see the man who talks sports in his box, the baby, the lady who feeds her and the girl with the curly hair. One day the family is playing in the park when Phoebe and the curly haired girl start playing with some other kids. Phoebe catches the ball, the curly haired girl gains confidence, falters and then Phoebe runs away with the ball distracting the kids.

MVP isn’t a children’s book that will be a classic or live in the most children’s library for a long time. It’s geared to those pre-K through third grade kids that love sports and dogs. That’s most of the kids out there, so the audience, those young kids will really enjoy the book until they demo out of it. It’s charming, has a great message and its proceeds are going to a great cause.

In a way it’s like the cute Cub Scouts who come to your door selling overpriced popcorn. You really want to buy the popcorn because the kids are so cute-and you like the skills that they teach.  But, there is popcorn for sale that you can purchase for ¼ the price that you’re being presented with here.

In this case the books is charming, but the book, unless you’re a devoted dog/sports family is common.

In the end it’s up to you. There are certainly worse books that you can purchase with your kidlit dollars, but there are some that are better too.