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Dog-Eared Reads: Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul reviewed

By Wesley Coburn

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 09: Annie enjoys a story read by employee Glynn Jones at Lily's Kitchen Diner on November 9, 2010 in London, England. Opening for two months to help raise money for the Charity Dogs Trust - Lily's Kitchen Diner is open for doggy dining, relaxing with a book and tummy rubs. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 09: Annie enjoys a story read by employee Glynn Jones at Lily's Kitchen Diner on November 9, 2010 in London, England. Opening for two months to help raise money for the Charity Dogs Trust - Lily's Kitchen Diner is open for doggy dining, relaxing with a book and tummy rubs. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) /
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In this edition of our “Dog-Eared Reads” book reviews, we look at Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul.

Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul: Stories About Pets as Teachers, Healers, Heroes and Friends is a fairly early entry in the Chicken Soup franchise, published in 1998 and edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker and Carol Kline.

Among the contributors submitting pieces are Dave Barry, James Herriot, Jimmy Stewart, First Dog Millie Bush (and First Lady Barbara Bush) and Betty White. There are also a lot of entries from ordinary non-famous people.

Interspersed throughout the pages at various intervals are selections from like Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, Lynn Johnston’s For Better or For Worse and Hal Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace.

The book is divided into eight sections: On Love, Pets as Teachers, Pets as Healers, Celebrating the Bond, Amazing Animals, On Companionship, Saying Goodbye and Petcetera.

About half the ninety selections are about dogs, though there are also stories about house birds, cats, chickens, fish, horses, mice, raccoons, squirrels and wolves.

Each piece runs about 1,200 words on the long end, which works out to about four pages at most, making the selections very quick to read.

There are stories of heroism and friendship, of random acts of kindness like the cross country relay race to reunite an elderly Beagle/Dachshund mix with her family in Fort Wayne, Indiana; and the lessons animals were involved in teaching about life, as Jimmy Stewart’s story from his teenage years illustrates.

There are also entries on historical pets like Patsy Ann the Staffordshire Terrier of Juneau and World War II hero Simon the Cat.

Are the entries in Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul somewhat sappy and overly sentimental? Sure, sometimes. But in short doses, which is the way these books are designed to be read, they work wonderfully at brightening the reader’s day, just like Edgar Guest’s poetry (he wrote fairly often from a dog’s perspective).

dark. Next. Dog-Eared Reads: The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Chicken Soup franchise has grown over the years to include more than 250 books, including Chicken Soup for the Cat and Dog Lover’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul, Loving Our Dogs, What I Learned from the Dog, My Dog’s Life, I Can’t Believe My Dog Did That!, The Dog Did What?, My Very Good, Very Bad Dog; The Dog Really Did That? and Life Lessons from the Dog. 

It also includes pet food for both dogs and cats. For more information, see the brand’s website for more details.

Do you have a favorite Chicken Soup book or story? Let us know on our Facebook or Twitter pages.

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