It's About Dogs

Children's Literature

This inspired collaboration of author and illustrator brings us poems and paintings about dogs by a team able to make their canine love palpable. Each of the more than forty poems celebrates a particular known dog with an ear for its uniqueness and an eye for character. The dogs become people in their own right, from the first dog, who "moved close/ to the fire. / It was faithful/ and stayed" to the mutt that's loved "utterly" to the dog at the pound whose eyes speak "what we cannot bear/ to know..." to the last critter seen, an Arctic dog baying at the moon who "remembers he is/ wolf." A wry, satisfying book that will even provide adults with food for thought. 2000, Harcourt Inc., $16.00. Ages 4 up. Reviewer: Nancy Tilly

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-"Silent as smoke/it moved close/to the fire./It was faithful/and stayed." Johnston's fine panoply of dog poems introduces "The First Dog" and eventually circles around to that dog that "knows a phantom/life./At moonrise/he remembers he is/wolf." Like the canines they celebrate, the poems are of varied size and shape. Rhymed quatrains, haiku, blank verse, and even doggerel find a place in the choir, and Rand's versatile paintings capture the dog denizens and the poetic moods with verve. There are realistic crayon portraits, comic sketches, broad panoramas, and haunting views. Johnston and Rand introduce imperious pets, strays, a fierce junkyard dog, an imaginary friend, and several historical canines-all viewed with affectionate insight. Readers will chuckle over the dogs of gluttonous Henry VIII. "Wolfhound and basset, mastiff, fice,/all slavered, eager for a choice/snippet, when the kingly boor/let slip the bones onto the floor." There are poignant moments as well as funny in this richly rendered tribute to be read and savored. A lovely gift to all who appreciate dogs, this should be widely enjoyed.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|