French illustrator takes us on a tour of NYC from a dog's point of view

With tons of books in bookstores and millions of titles online, how do you choose the books you will read? A few days ago my friend Hannah, who now lives in the US, bought a book just because she liked the colorful sketches in it. It's called Americanine: A Haute Dog in New York by French illustrator Yann Kebbi.

In this lively children's story, a French dog recounts his trip to NYC to his pals. His vivid descriptions accompanied by vibrant, kinetic sketches, allow the reader to see through his eyes. In Brain Pickings, Maria Popova writes:

"The playfulness of the canine perspective extends a warm invitation to pause and marvel at some of the absurd things we humans do, which we've come to take for granted in the rhythm of daily life. As the dog peers through the window of a giant gym and watches people run in place without getting anywhere, one is suddenly reminded of how silly much of what we do would seem to a rational observer.  

What emerges is a loving portrait of a city ablaze with aliveness, one in which both tourists and locals will recognize themselves — their dreams and their realities, mirrored back at them with eager and nonjudgmental eyes full of wonderment."

Americanine: A Haute Dog in New York is Kebbis' first book. His drawings have also been published in magazines and newspapers including the The New Yorker, The New York Times, Revue XXI, and others. See more of Kebbi's work on his blog.