Born to Pull

Rating:
Summary: Information wrapped inside a beautifully illustrated book
Review: "Born to Pull" was recommended to me by the owner of the kennel where our family would be going for our first mushing experience. Though aimed at upper elementary kids, the amount of information is amazing. The illustrations enhance the content beautifully; particularly stunning is a painting of a team pulling under the Northern Lights.

Most enjoyable are the stories interspersed throughout; stories from well-known mushers such as Gary Paulsen and Jamie Nelson. Stories of dogs that decided to run the wrong way at the end of a race, and of dogs who found the way home in a raging storm.

Reading this book did not guarantee that I would not wipe out on the sled, but when I did, I knew just what the snow hook was!

Rating:
Summary: Not for kids only!
Review: "Born to Pull" is vintage Bob Cary, maybe his best work ever. As always the question is, is it Cary's marvelous prose or his illustrations that make this book great? Wait. It's illustrated by someone else - Gail de Marcken. But Bob, please don't try to tell us you had no hand in the art work.

Even if the reader is a die-hard dog sled fan there are things to be learned in this book. Even die-hard Cary fans will be moved by the stories of mushers and their dogs.

This is a beautifully put-together book. It even feels good to hold. The centerpiece is the collection of great stories. Cary lets his subjects speak for themselves as he guides the reader through the details; he is the master of this technique.

Five paws up.

Rating:
Summary: Information wrapped inside a beautifully illustrated book
Review: "Born to Pull" was recommended to me by the owner of the kennel where our family would be going for our first mushing experience. Though aimed at upper elementary kids, the amount of information is amazing. The illustrations enhance the content beautifully; particularly stunning is a painting of a team pulling under the Northern Lights.

Most enjoyable are the stories interspersed throughout; stories from well-known mushers such as Gary Paulsen and Jamie Nelson. Stories of dogs that decided to run the wrong way at the end of a race, and of dogs who found the way home in a raging storm.

Reading this book did not guarantee that I would not wipe out on the sled, but when I did, I knew just what the snow hook was!

Rating:
Summary: Not for kids only!
Review: I found this book in the kids' section while looking for Christmas presents. Knew nothing about it, and sled dogs are not my dog-of-choice, but was immediately compelled to buy it even tho it cost more than I'd planned. Amazingly full of good information, understanding of dogs and pulling, but there was a twinkle in the eye of the author, too. Imagine the runway team surrounding the ice-fisherman and eating all his catch!

The illustrations too are extraordinary. Such obvious awareness of the inner workings of dogs is unusual. The expressions of each dog are wonderful.

Highest recommendation for sled-dog enthusiast or any dog person, young or old.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, beautiful --However, not perfect
Review: This book is great, it has beautiful pictures and info. However, I did find a few things that were not to great. First of all, when describing the Alaskan Malamute, the illustration had a pure black dog... Malamutes are NEVER pure black, they can be all white but that's the only exception for all one color, the only labeled pic of malamutes are an all white and all black, no markings! They also had very vague info on them. Malamute's real name is ALASKAN MALAMUTE, no where in the book did it say ALASKAN in front of malamute, well howcome you put SIBERIAN and ALASKAN in front of the husky? And two, I got a pup this August and I'm going to start training, so I read the chapter called "How to train Sled Dogs" it had absolutely nothing about training them except for, start training as pups! Blank spot! On what do you train them? All in all though, this was a beautiful book, I just use it for the pictures now.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, beautiful --However, not perfect
Review: This book is great, it has beautiful pictures and info. However, I did find a few things that were not to great. First of all, when describing the Alaskan Malamute, the illustration had a pure black dog... Malamutes are NEVER pure black, they can be all white but that's the only exception for all one color, the only labeled pic of malamutes are an all white and all black, no markings! They also had very vague info on them. Malamute's real name is ALASKAN MALAMUTE, no where in the book did it say ALASKAN in front of malamute, well howcome you put SIBERIAN and ALASKAN in front of the husky? And two, I got a pup this August and I'm going to start training, so I read the chapter called "How to train Sled Dogs" it had absolutely nothing about training them except for, start training as pups! Blank spot! On what do you train them? All in all though, this was a beautiful book, I just use it for the pictures now.