Into the Bog with.... Maggi and Milo by Juli Brenning

MAGGI IS AN EXCELLENT ADVENTURER,

A BIT OF A SCIENTIST, AND MILO'S BEST FRIEND.

So when Maggi comes home to find a package from Grandma. she tears it open to find a book and a pair of blue polka-dotted boots. And Grandma clearly knows her girl. The book is about hunting frogs and there's nothing for it but for Maggi to pull on her boots and head right out to the pond to see what's hoppin.'

Nothing is hopping, swimming, or croaking. Maggi stands motionless for about a million or so minutes. She comes to a conclusion.

"... WET FEET MAKE FOR A LONG DAY."

Her shaggy shepherd Milo has better things to do. He wanders off. Finally Maggi gives up on frog spotting, realizes Milo is missing, and splashes off to find him.

"M.....ILO?"

MILO HAD FOUND FROGS!

Maggi starts naming her foundling frogs--Alexander, Benjamin, Cooper.... until she stops abruptly at Princess Penelope...

Maggi has hit the wall:

"NO WAY I CAN THINK OF A GIRL'S NAME THAT STARTS WITH Q!"

The sun may have set on Maggi's frog-hunting for the day, but there's always another adventure ahead for Maggi and Milo, in Juli Brenning's Maggi and Milo (Dial Books, 2014), which introduces this piquant pig-tailed adventuress and her shaggy sidekick. Artist Priscilla Burris gives us a gung-ho girl, ebullient, joyful, and a bit of a risk taker, under the mostly watchful eyes of her big black and white dog. "...there's a new spunky gal-and-canine twosome in town," says Kirkus.