PreS-Gr 2-- Martha, a mutt, begins to speak after her young owner slips her a bowl of alphabet soup. She speaks, and speaks, and speaks, until Helen tells her, ``Sometimes I wish you had never learned to talk.'' Martha is devastated, and her withdrawal is alleviated only when she has the opportunity to save her family from a robbery. The pranks in between, including accepting pizza deliveries and phoning for a huge order of barbecue, add to the loopy, incongruous humor. Casual ink-line-and-watercolor cartoons are punctuated by dialogue balloons. In several places, Martha's hand-printed monologue overruns the pages. For reading aloud, the balloons can be included or omitted without damaging the sense of the story. A comparable tale about an unusual pet is Tomi Ungerer's Crictor (HarperCollins, 1958). Any preschool audience and most independent readers will yelp with laughter at this light, funny entertainment. --Carolyn Noah, Central Mass. Regional Library System, Worcester, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.