According to this book, Dog Island was a result of an animal sanctuary in Thailand during the floods becoming uninhabitable. Over 100 dogs took shelter on a small patch of dry land until rescued.

Unfortunately this is not the story of Dog Island. While it is touched on a few times, there is no depth and little detail (after all, the book tells the story in three short paragraphs). It is also not the story of a pitiful dog, as only one dog is named outright, Oreo, who appears in one paragraph. It’s not even really a story in the sense of plot, character, etc. Most of the book is basic tips about caring for a dog, how to help dogs, and basic information similar to that found in flyers and pamphlets. There are no links to the charities concerned to make donations.

The formatting is average. There are a few color photos scattered throughout, of dogs in cages and behind chicken wire. The English throughout is poor, e.g. “A lot of the dogs probably did not want to be abandoned as so.” Lines of thought are started  but never explored, for example, it ends the blurb – and the section on Dog Island – with a line about having fundamental changes to make if we want to stop this happening again, but never goes into what those are. Instead it suggests adopting a dog (again with no details) – a personal change but working within the system, not changing it.

It is hard to work out who the intended audience for this was – dog lovers already know most of the content in more depth, and if you don’t love dogs, why buy a book about them? Given that and the English I’d have to give this a two