What Is Your Dog Doing?

Newcomer Habbley brings 1960s cartoon-style spreads bursting with color and action to Singer's (Mirror, Mirror) direct, telegraphic lines: "Dog sharing/ Dog daring/ Dog in a chase/ Dog in disgrace./Brilliant dog that loves to herd, / Famous dog that gets chauffeured." "Dog sharing" shows a hound with a goofy expression pushing his stuffed toy toward a demure poodle with beribboned ears--a spread in which the blue of the toy, the umber of the hound's fur, and the white of the poodle vibrate against a field of solid red. For "Dog daring," a small, white terrier rides in the sidecar of a motorcycle, zooming straight toward viewers. "Dog in a chase" is a bathtub escapee, and the "Dog in disgrace" is a doleful basset hound who holds a tulip in his mouth and wears a "Who, me?" expression, the whole given warmth and energy by the bright orange background. The combination of matte pages and intense colors creates a silk-screen-like effect, and the crisp edges of the shapes please, too. A companion volume about cats would be just the thing. Ages 3-7. (June)

PreS-Gr 1--This imaginative rhyming story shows myriad behaviors that a dog might engage in. Some are simply two-word phrases such as "dog dreaming, /dog scheming, /... dog sharing, /dog daring," while others are longer lines, such as "Dog that works the circus tent/Dog that's with the president." Each phrase has its own page with an apt illustration depicting the action. Habbley portrays a wide array of breeds in a plethora of locations from kitchen to sidecar to red carpet to vet's office and everywhere in between. The last illustration is of a child reading a book to his dog while the text asks, "Tell me, what is your dog doing?" This fun look at canine activities will be a hit with dog people, cat people, and all people at storytime or anytime.--Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH