Puppy Bus

A story that's got all the markers of a classic anxiety dream becomes an amusing balm for hesitant school-goers in Brockington's deftly comic picture book. The protagonist, a pink-skinned kid with a round-headed, angsty Peanuts mien, isn't thrilled about starting at a brand-new school: "The teachers will be different. I'll have to make all new friends. I won't even know where the bathroom is." But these worries end up constituting a massive understatement: having somehow boarded the bus to Leroy's Puppy School, endearingly goofy cartooning reveals, the child is the only human on the premises (even the principal is a dog). The first class covers rolling over, the lunchroom serves kibble, and the toilet is a fire hydrant. But consoling licks from a canine classmate draws the child into the swing of things, and in short order, fetch, puppy piles, and howling seem like the most natural thing in the world--at least until the second day of school. Ages 4-8. (July)