100 books like Doctor White

The story inspires sadness, hope, and happiness. At first, you’ll feel sorry for Mr. Hatch. You’ll care about him and wonder why he is the way he is. You’ll watch him receive a gift that has a lasting effect on him. Then, with a turn of events, you’ll feel sorry for him again. But by the end, you’ll be rooting for him.

This book inspires happiness and laughter. I used to throw my voice when I read it aloud to students. I’d stop reading halfway through the story and ask students to make a few predictions. Where could the dog be going? Why is he dressed up? Why is he sneaking out of the house at night? What could be going on inside the building?

This is a gentle, lyrical story. This book inspires love. If you read it, you’ll feel the loving relationship the girl has with her grandfather...and with butterflies. You’ll wonder why the butterflies visit the girl once she’s grown up. What do the butterflies who visit her seem to know or sense? Why aren’t the butterflies visiting her neighbors?

This story inspires empathy. You may recall a time when you lost something you treasured. Reading this book will get you caring for both the boy and the man in the story. Who needed the teddy bear more? How does the boy change from the beginning of the story to the end? Have you ever been generous like the main character?

I feel that true understanding of animals comes from deep within the human psyche, if only we would allow ourselves to indulge in our own natural instincts and needs. Scientist Marc Becoff’s years of research show that animals have rich emotional lives, like humans, and are not as different as we are taught to believe. He has assisted in the successful social revolution combining science and ethics, resulting in a call for reassessing both how we view animals and how we treat them. Not only do animals feel joy, love, surprise, sadness, fear, anger, and empathy, but they are now known to adhere to rules of fair play, wild justice, and their own types of honor. He emphasizes that real richness in relationships grows out of respect, compassion, and patience, as well as scientific understanding. I feel humane arrogance blocks these virtues, much to our detriment.

Martha Speaks is the famous speaking dog. I recommend this chapter book as it relates to my book.

In this story, two children exchange their lives with that of their dog for a day. I like this original scenario because it can teach great lessons on being happy with who you are and what you have. At the end of the book, the author gathered new words in a glossary.

Readers can also follow the step-by-step experiment at the end to become a dog for the day. Do not hesitate to read this book with your children and make them speak about their understanding of the story.

Unlike so many books where the point of view character is a dog, Haig has really thought his way into the dog. His creation, Prince, is not a counterfeit, a man in a dog suit, as it were, but a real dog. Haig’s empathic projection of how a dog might see things and interpret events is both charming and very believable. Further, Prince is a truly relatable character, without being ‘cute’. His well-meaning, doomed struggle to make sense of things he cannot understand, and to take control of a bad situation and save his family, is the very essence of tragedy; he is prevented by his very nature from achieving what he so desperately desires. 

The ending will break your heart, but it’s a fantastic read that will leave you feeling richer for having read it.

In a word: Irreverent. With Dav Pilkey, humor is king and just about anything goes. A dog’s head fused to a policeman’s body? Makes perfect sense to a child, and to me for that matter.

I love that Dav created these characters when he was in grade school, which is probably why it connects with kids so well. But Pilkey’s kitchen sink sensibility wouldn’t work if he wasn’t such a great storyteller too.

Epley, a behavioral scientist, provides an often-humorous take on our daily efforts to read the minds of others. He offers trenchant, real-life examples (in addition to scientific studies) of how we go horribly wrong – and why we sometimes get it right. In one clever experiment, people tapped out the tune of a song on a wooden desk while they hummed it in their heads. The tappers were wildly overconfident that others could identify the song – because it sounded so clear to themselves. Mindwise is a wonderful reminder to get out of our own heads and figure out the limits of what others can perceive.

I love this book from Anita – it feels like it resonates a lot with the messages in my original book on the empath experience yet includes some other stories and anecdotes that can relate to an even broader audience. I appreciate her core thesis that empaths are really the world’s healers especially at this time – here to teach empathy, compassion, and true connection simply by being who they truly are.