Spike and the Holiday Parade

The Taylor family's pet dog, Spike, uses his crazy family's over-the-top holiday antics toward a good cause. Join Spike in this holiday adventure that celebrates new and old traditions with beloved family and friends. Can you find the hidden Pugs? More hidden Pugs inside!

An amusing holiday tale for lovers of cranky canines.

A dog deals with his family's overwhelming Christmas enthusiasm in this illustrated children's book.

While Spike, a pug, may prefer just quietly observing the holidays, his human family is gaga for Christmas. This is especially true of the father, whose motto is "Put Lights On It!" Despite living in a warm climate, the family has over-decorated its house, resulting in the residence getting featured in the newspaper and becoming a local tourist destination that blocks traffic. But there's room for improvementâ€"or so the father believes when he goes into "the zone." After he sees lights reflecting off his white car, he invokes his motto, and soon the convertible is covered in red, blue, green, and yellow lights. Spike may think it looks ridiculous, but the family members love it, and their friends get so enthusiastic, they decide to light up their cars for their holidays (Hanukkah and Kwanzaa) as well. Then Spike's family gets the big idea to host a car parade and make it a fundraiser to support the local shelterâ€"where the pug was adoptedâ€"which is short of money. At a holiday party, the family recruits even more participants, and the parade quickly grows and grows until even reporters are on the scene. Spike's tepid attitude about the entire event warms as he knows he's able to help the shelter animals still waiting to find their forever homes. But his commentary about how over the top and absurd the parade has become continues to have a snarky bite. That grumpy attitude helps drive the narrative, even when Spike begrudgingly acknowledges the fun. In this series opener, Taylor's vocabulary and dense text are far more appropriate for independent readers who are at the chapter book level. The uncredited and brightâ€"Spike might say gaudyâ€"digital illustrations depict diverse humans. Several of the pictures feature small versions of Spike hovering above the heads of other characters, though it's never clear why this choice was made. While Spike's human father makes the annoying error of placing penguins, an Antarctic species, at the North Pole, the enjoyable story holds together well and the holiday enthusiasm is contagious.

-Kirkus Reviews

-- R. G. Taylor