Meet the Neighbors! Douglas, You're a Genius! by Ged Adamson

Nancy and Douglas were playing ball in the backyard when Nancy hit one too hard. And of all the places it could have gone inside the fenced-in yard, the ball rolls straight through a small hole at the bottom of the fence.

"I'd say that one's a goner," said Doug.

But the ball came rolling back through the fence straight to them.

What? Who? How? Doug and Nancy have got to know!

"I have an idea!" said Doug.

Doug runs inside and comes out with a toy train and some track and soon sends the train rolling back under the fence with a note.

"THANK YOU! WE ARE NANCY AND DOUG."

And the train returns straightway, with a note.

"HOLA! QUIEREMOS CONOCERTE!"

Huh? What? How? Now Nancy and Doug have to solve the mystery. Nancy is full of plans for seeing who's on the other side of the fence. She tries getting Doug to jump on the toy trampoline and vault over the fence, but he only makes it onto the tree. She tries a rocket belt strapped to Doug's back with two shaken liters or soft drinks to propel him up and over.

The flight is a fizzle.

Poor Doug has to try pole vaulting.... and getting a lift from a floating kite... until at last Nancy is out of uplifting ideas.

Now it's Doug's turn. He starts digging a hole beside the fence. Nancy is pleased. He's making a tunnel under the fence. That could work....

But NO! That's not Doug's idea. The pile of excavated dirt grows until it is as tall as the fence, and with a mountain-climbing ax, Doug ascends to the peak and is able to peer over the fence at last.

"HOLA!"

"HELLO!"

There's a boy and his dog on the other side, and soon the two sets of gizmo inventors have devised a way to cross over the fence, in Ged Adamson's latest shaggy dog story, Douglas, You're a Genius! (Schwartz and Wade). Author-illustrator Adamson's humorous tale of bridging differences proves poet Robert Frost's famous quote, "Something there is that does not love a wall." There are quite enough Rube Goldberg contraptions and contrivances in both yards to suggest that the two kids and two dogs have plenty in common to share. Ged Adamson's first book about Nancy and her nearsighted shaggy dog Doug is Douglas, You Need Glasses! (read review here)

Booklist says, "...this amusing picture book also shows that goals can be reached cooperatively through planning, ingenuity, and goodwill.