Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
When Michelle reads her dog, Moka, a book about wolves, he finds their lives an exciting contrast to his dull life at home. He decides to be a wolf. Out of the house into the mountains he runs, happy to be free to do as he likes. When he gets hungry, however, he discovers it is hard to hunt like a wolf. By dark, feeling miserable, he has one more thing to try. His subsequent howl at the moon, unfortunately, is answered by real wolves, sending him running home. Michelle is happy to have him back and life seems perfect until Michelle reads him a book on a different subject…. Ink lines and watercolors produce action vignettes and full-page scenes to visualize the succinct text, which is barely needed for this simple wish-fulfillment tale. Kasza’s scenes of girl and dog clearly convey their emotions, while the whole story leaves us smiling. 2005, G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Young Readers Group, $15.99. Ages 4 to 8.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 16))
Moka's a good dog, and he loves his young owner Michelle. Life seems perfect until she reads a book about wolves to him. Moka takes a critical look at his life: the leashes, the dog food and particularly the tea party dresses. He decides life as a free wolf is preferable in every way, so he runs away and finds freedom fun until dinnertime. Every animal he chases gets away or laughs at his attempts to hunt. He decides he misses Michelle, but he wants to try howling at the moon. When real wolves answer, Moka races for home. Everything is perfect again . . . until Michelle reads a book about monkeys. Kasza's simple story and expressive watercolor and ink illustrations are spot-on. Young listeners will see themselves in Moka's discontent and wish it were as easy for them to try freedom. In the end, this tale of home and comfort will make everyone sigh with happiness. 2005, Putnam, 32p, $15.99. Category: Picture book. Ages 3 to 8. © 2005 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2006)
Inspired by a book about wolves that his young owner, Michelle, shares with him, Moka the dog runs off to try life in the wild. A brief encounter with real wolves has him quickly running back home. Humorous, expressive illustrations accompany the silly story, which ends with Moka looking concerned as Michelle, after reading a book about monkeys, starts swinging from the chandelier. Category: Picture Books. 2005, Putnam, 32pp, 15.99. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.

Sheila Fox (The Kutztown Book Review, Fall 2006)
Moka is a cute, lovable, silly dog. One day Michele, his owner, reads him a book about wolves. Suddenly, he feels that everything he does is boring and he’s tired of being dressed up and having tea parties so he decides to run away to the mountains and live like the wolves. However, he soon realizes he’s unable to survive in the wild and when the real wolves arrive and begin howling he runs home quickly for safety. This excellent dog story is quite charming with an important message for children-appreciate the things in life. It received a Starred Review from School Library Journal. The watercolor illustrations are delightful and somewhat cartoon like. Possible curricular uses would be to do comparing and contrasting on a Venn diagram of this story with the books The Boy Who cried Wolf (original tale) or Harry the Dirty Dog (he runs away, too). Category: Picture Book. 2005, Putnam Publishing Group, $15.99. Ages 3 to 8.

Charlene Bustos (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 18, No. 4))
The first item to grab readers’ attention is the title. They ask themselves if this story will be similar to the folktale, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” The cover of the book depicts a small brown-and-white dog howling at the moon. Moka is a small dog who belongs to Michelle. They enjoy being together, and Moka loves when Michelle reads books to him. One day, she reads a nonfiction book about wolves and explains to Moka that he is kind of like a wolf. After hearing about the wolves’ amazing adventures and exciting lives, Moka feels like a failure--he is nothing but a house pet. The worst of that is when Michelle dresses him up for her tea parties. He wants even more to be a wolf. So Moka runs away, off into the mountains. He thoroughly enjoys his solitary freedom to come and go as he pleases, doing whatever he feels like doing. Then he gets hungry. So he decides he will hunt like the wolves do. He is outrun by the rabbit, sprayed by a skunk, pinched by a beetle, and laughed at by a field mouse. By nightfall, as he is howling at the moon, he hears the distant howling of “real wolves.” He turns tail and runs straightaway home. Michelle enthusiastically greets Moka in the front yard, and they settle back into their routines. Until one day when Michelle reads a book about monkeys... The illustrations actively support the text in a realistic cartoon-like fashion. Many double-spreads are utilized. As Moka goes on his “wolf-like” adventures, the action is very apparent through Kasza’s use of various lines. During these adventures, many verbs are used with an illustration to match. This type of text/illustration greatly enhances comprehension for the English-language learner. Fiction. Grades K-3. 2005, Putnam, Unpaged., $15.99. Ages 5 to 9.