A review by ruthypoo2
How Stella Learned to Talk: The Groundbreaking Story of the World's First Talking Dog by Christina Hunger

emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

In a way, this book compliments another non-fiction I read earlier this year, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, a fascinating account of how animals perceive the world differently than we do. In Stella, the author, herself a speech-language pathologist, does an excellent job explaining a practical, patient, and loving application of using Augmentative and Alternative Communicaton (AAC) with her pet dog, Stella. As a dog owner myself, it's very informative to learn about ways in which we can give our pets more of a voice by not only introducing an AAC assistive device in a thoughtful manner, but simply paying better attention to the intuitive behaviors they use to "talk" with us all the time.

I read along on the digital edition to be sure and see the photos, while I listened to the audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed the clear delivery of the narrator, Ann Marie Gideon. There are also supplemental sounds included on the audiobook that enhance the listening experience, such as specific words being spoken by the AAC device created for Stella.