Book Review:Pound Puppies in Problem Puppies

Here I'm opting to review another Pound Puppies book; one of the more common ones.

We're first introduced to a (very cute!) little brown dog named Sassafras who lives on Farmer Brown's farm(One point of interest about Sassafras is that in the Golden Book Video version, he speaks with a very adorable southern accent). His job is to chase away the rabbits(who, BTW, are also very cute; they look kind of like Pound Bunnies!)* that come by, but he, being good friends with these bunnies, prefers to play with them(Another point of interest, BTW, is that one of the rabbits' names is revealed to be Cottontail in the video version). Such results in the rabbits getting into the farmer's prized vegetables and gobbling them up, which causes him no end of aggravation. Farmer Brown angrily bawls Sassafras out for this, tells him that he's going to take him to the pound and that he's going to get rid of the rabbits himself.

Living not that far from the farm is another (equally cute) dog of obvious coloration named Pumpkin, who also has a bit of a problem; his young owner, Hannah(who looks a little bit like Holly, or possibly a junior version of Tammy from Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw) hasn't stopped sneezing since she got him(In the video version, she asks her mom, with false hope, if the sneezing might be being caused by their dusty house; her mom, regrettably, knows better). Hannah loves Pumpkin, but, due to her allergies, her mom regrettably has no choice but to take him to the pound.

The dogs and their owners arrive at the pound at about the same time. Doc Weston(who, in the video version, even says, "I've never seen two sadder looking dogs, or three sadder looking people.") tries to comfort them all, knowing meanwhile that Cooler and the other Pound Puppies will do whatever they can to remedy this situation.

Cooler and the other dogs welcome these newcomers with open arms; despite this, however, Sassafras is too upset to relate his story. Nose Marie(here referred to as, "The Nose" due to this book being made before the TV show) sniffs around him, upon which, smelling hay, cows, vegetables and rabbits, indicating that he's a farm dog. Upon the word "rabbits," Sassafras tells the group his sad story; he feels like a failure. (Poor little guy. Sniff! :*C) Pumpkin, who's feeling no better, relates his story next:Hannah so wants a pet, but she's allergic to dogs.

Fortunately, Cooler, resourceful as ever, comes up with a solution. He reasons that Hannah probably isn't allergic to rabbits, so if they bring the rabbits to Hannah's house, not only will they now be her pets, but they won't get into Farmer Brown's vegetables any more. (Two birds, one stone and all that.) Cooler powwows with Barkerville and they come up with a plan, then giving each of the Pound Puppies a special task. First, Scrounger is sent to gather the fixings for a stew, as well as some sleeping powder, which Chef Louie then uses to prepare the aforementioned. Then, Brighteyes and Howler(who, also due to this book being made before the TV show, howls rather than speaking English) seek out Catgut and mention loudly, within his earshot, the delicious stew.

 Catgut evinces interest in this, and informs the pound guard dogs about the stew. As planned, they steal the stew and drop off almost immediately. (Oddly, in the video version, the sleeping powder is never used or mentioned; Catgut and the guard dogs simply gobble down the stew and fall asleep despite this sequence making no sense without the sleeping powder.)

Cooler, Barkerville and Nose Marie make their way to the farm via their network of tunnels under the pound. They arrive there just in time to see Farmer Brown pointing a gun at the rabbits! (GLEEP! :-O) The panicked Pound Puppies, frantically wondering how to save the bunnies, brace themselves for the worst...

...But Farmer Brown just can't bring himself to harm the cute little guys. On top of that, he misses Sassafras and regrets being so harsh to him. (One point of interest is that in the video version, Farmer Brown's gun was Disneyfied into a net.) While he isn't looking, the Pound Puppies gather up the bunnies and spirit them away to Hannah's house. They deposit the rabbits on the doorstep, ring the doorbell, then quickly hide in the bushes.

 Hannah is surprised, albeit pleasantly so, to see them. She picks up and hugs her new pets, and fortunately doesn't sneeze. (Oooh, the bunny on the right is kissing her! THAT'S SO CUTE!!)

The dogs quickly hurry back to the pound, upon which Nabbit barges in, loudly complaining that Cooler's gotten out again. (Have mercy, the artist drew Nabbit badly here!) Doc Weston informs him that Cooler is only showing the new dogs how to shake hands, beg, and roll over; as such, Sassafras and Pumpkin, who have become good friends by now, show him. (What Nabbit doesn't know won't hurt him, right?)

At this very moment, Farmer Brown comes in asking about getting his dog back; Sassafras seems quite happy to see him, but Pumpkin is sad that his new friend is leaving. Upon noticing this, Sassafras starts growling and backing away from Farmer Brown, which confuses both him and Doc Weston due to the fact that only a moment prior, Sassafras had seemed happy to see him. (In the video version, this is changed to Sassafras crying.)

  One look at Pumpkin, however, clears up this matter. Farmer Brown happily takes both dogs home home with him. (You see, again we have the problem of no one understanding dog-speak. If only Holly had been there...)

Sassafras and Pumpkin are living happily on the farm, Hannah's happy with her rabbits, and all's well that ends well, as they say. :)



My thoughts: This is a cute book. Sassafras and Pumpkin and their respective owners(and even the bunnies!) are good characters, and the storyline is interesting. Some of my main beefs, however, are:

-Not to sound picky, but the plot was kind of weak, and the writing wasn't the best, especially compared to some of the other books in the series.

-The artwork also wasn't the best(e.g. the way Nabbit was drawn, as noted, and, in the picture of Catgut shown above, he has terrier-like whiskers).

-Catgut is described as being the dogcatcher's(i.e. Nabbit's) pet; he's actually supposed to be Bigelow's pet. Granted, Bigelow doesn't appear in this particular book, but still.

-For that matter, the Golden Book Video version suffered from a bit of Adaptation Decay, as noted above.

Despite these things, this book is by no means terrible (Ditto the video). In fact, it's a good, easy-to-come-by, and usually affordable choice for any Pound Puppies fan/collector.

*For those interested BTW, Pound Bunnies will occasionally be available on ebay. Regrettably, they'll sometimes be a little expensive, but well worth it for any Pound Puppies collector.


UPDATE 5/17/12:I'd like to share this picture of this Pound Puppy I recently got who looks almost exactly like Sassafras.

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Buy the video on Amazon!