Dogs who work for their living are the theme of this offering illustrated with markers and watercolors in deep, bright shades. Reiser combines ten different types of jobs for working dogs with a text structure that subtracts one puppy from each spread, resulting in a reverse counting format. In addition to the numerals and ordinal numbers, the text introduces the names of ten different occupations, as well as the name of the dog’s job and a corresponding adjective that indicates beginner status. The text also uses the proper sentence structure for a beginning subtraction story problem, and the final page expresses the subtraction equations in mathematical terms, so this volume will be useful in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. The final spread offers more information about each canine job. As an introduction to working dogs and to subtraction, this effort gets the job done. (Picture book. 3-7)
