Puppy Treat: Marley: A Thanksgiving to Remember by John Grogan

MARLEY WAS SO EXITED!

TODAY THE FAMILY WOULD PREPARE A HUGE THANKSGIVING FEAST. THERE WOULD BE MANY DELICIOUS THINGS TO EAT.

MARLEY COULD HARDLY WAIT.

But after seeing the mess and mayhem the excitable puppy has made of Christmas and Halloween preparations, maybe the Grogans should have opted for dinner at Grandma's this year. But the Grogans, as we know, are either eternal optimists or lacking a bit in short-term memory, and so, with little Marley in the middle of everything, they forge on to procure and prepare their family feast.

The best-selling John Grogan's newest, Marley: A Thanksgiving to Remember (Harper Festival, 2011), features this unflappable family in a new flap book entry.a design device which turns Thanksgiving morning into a game of hide-and-seek, to the delight of Cassie and Baby Louie.

First, Cassie has to find Marley's leash, hidden under the pup's turkey chew toy, and then all the Grogans stop everything to look for the car keys (under the doormat flap) and Mom's all-important grocery list (in the laundry basket), courtesy, of course, of Marley. They get no further than the car when Baby Louis misses his blankie, but this time it's Marley to the rescue, and when the front door flap is opened, Marley has it all ready for him, as if he knew Louie couldn't go anywhere without it.

Back home, there's a search for the bag of stuffing mix, hiding in the pantry with guilty parties Baby Louie and Marley. Marley continues his "help" right up to the point where the table is finally loaded with the feast and the family begins the ritual of telling each other what they are most thankful for.

"PUPPY!" SAID BABY LOUIE.

With the exception of the cover illustration (Marley doesn't actually stick a foot in the mashed potatoes in the text), artists Richard Cowdry and Rick Whipple do a journeyman job of providing lively illustrations for Marley: A Thanksgiving to Remember, and this inexpensive little paperback offers a bit of flap book fun which isn't too off-the-mark for families with a rambunctuous retriever pup determined to "enjoy" every aspect of an exciting holiday.