Rescue Dog! MVP--Most Valuable Puppy by Mike Greenberg and Stacy Greenberg

Hi! My name is Phoebe.

I like tummy scratches, cheese, tennis balls, and eating crumbs that fall from the table.

Obviously, Phoebe is a dog, a fluffy white doodle dog whose perky, woolly tale is a bright shade of pink to match her collar. She loves treat time and TV time, but...

"More than anything I love my family."

Phoebe loves to go to the park with her "sister," the girl in the family whose pink glasses match Phoebe's tail. And one day when all the kids invite the girl to join in a game of football, Phoebe decides to join the game, too, and the kids cheer. After all, she's watched enough gameplay on the tube to know how to move the ball down the field. And Phoebe is even better at soccer, where her speed and agility come in handy in guarding the ball downfield.

SCORE!

Phoebe wins the title of "Most Valuable Player" for the game, and when her "sister" takes a tumble, Phoebe is right there with sympathetic tail wags, in sportscaster Mike Greenberg's picture book illustrated by his wife, graphic artist Stacy Greenberg, MVP: Most Valuable Puppy (Aladdin Books, 2018), based on this own family's story and pets. Games, kids, and a fun-loving labradoodle! What's not to like in this sunny story of a day in the park. Kirkus Reviews says, "Phoebe and her best friend score a touchdown with this groundbreaking pairing of a sports-minded girl and her dog."

It Takes All Kinds! Dogs and Their People by Anne Lambelet

One beautiful days, I like to take the long way home from school.

And my favorite thing to do is look at all the dogs and their people.

People-watching has always been popular, but this young girl puts her own spin on it--observing pairs of people and their canine pets.

Some people share an uncanny likeness with their canine companions. There is a secret smile on our girl's face as she spots a chesty dandy sporting a double-breasted jacket, walking his equally deep-chested bulldog. A prim lady perches on a park bench perusing her book, while her svelt pinscher studies the newspaper, and Lord Banberry and his schnauzer O'Grady share magnificent mustachios!

Others could not be more different.

She spots a top-heavy dowager with a spindly toy poodle tripping daintily along on her leash.

And when our observant girl finally arrives home, what kind of canine companion awaits to greets her...?

There's a surprise for young readers on Anne Lambelet's last page of her forthcoming Dogs and Their People (Page Street Kids, 2019), along with charming vintage 1920s illustrations of people, pets, and the retro cityscape through which they move. Youngsters will appreciate the comic and restrained text and piquant artwork filled with amusing details of people being people and dogs being dogs, even a corgi who steals a lick of little Alexander Pemberton's ice cream cone. A unique dog story with artwork that begs to be studied, page by page.

Wild at Heart?: Wolf Camp by Andrea Zuill

MY NAME IS HOMER.

I AM A DOG...

BUT SOMETIMES I AM VERY WOLFISH.

ALL DOGS HAVE A BIT OF WOLF IN THEM. IT'S BEEN PROVEN BY SCIENCE.

Homer is just a home-loving Joe Dog, your average cozy canine, a lazy layabout whose exercise mostly consists of checking his food bowl and subduing his stuffed toy, Mr. Moose.

But Homer is convinced that deep in his heart there lurks an inner wolf, one that only needs a walk on the wild side to bring out his true nature. What he needs is a week in the woods under the tutelage of his primal cousins to release his untamed inner self.

So when a flyer turns up in his kibble bag from an outfit called Wolf Camp, Homer gets busy lobbying his humans to sign him up. Boarding the bus, Homer, er, sniffs out his bunk mates, and bonds with Rex, a typical goofball Lab, and Trixie, a petite but perky Chihuahua. They suffer through a boring orientation session with their counselors, Fang and GRRR, before they get down to their first wolf lessons--marking (Not on my foot, Rex!), howling (Trixie can manage only an unimpressive y-i-i-p), and tracking (Look! A bunny!!!). Then the intrepid campers get a taste of the fruits of the hunt:

"IT'S GOT HAIR ON IT!"

Homer writes home:

Dear People,

The food here is yucky. Please send me some of Grandma's Polly's Pampered Doggie Snacks (the bacon-flavored ones.) Also my flea medicine. Because there are a lot of bugs here, and they are gross!

Love, Homer

At last it's time to head to the bunkhouse. Homer is pooped and more than ready for his doggy bed.

WHEN IT GOT DARK, WE FOUND OUT HOW REAL WOLVES SLEEP.

(THEY DON'T. THEY HOWL!)

Will this trio of unlikely wannabe wolves wash out at Wolf Camp? Well, all's well that ends wild, and as the bus pulls out of camp and heads down the trail for home, they are singing their camp song--ARROOOOOOOOOOOO!--all the way home, in Andrea Zuill's hilarious romp on the wild side, Wolf Camp (Schwartz and Wade, 2016). Her cartoon canines are perfect for their roles as would-be wolves, and although it's unlikely that Homer, Rex, and Trixie have perfected being rapacious, predaceous, and voracious, they do manage to have a howling good time, as will young readers, especially those who have also put in some time in the wilds of sleepover camp.

Andrea Zuill's storytelling is toothsome, and her illustrations, with plenty of sight gags to extend the text, are wildly funny, incorporating clever camp signs and thought balloons to chronicle the canine transition to wolfdom along the way. A dandy debut picture book by author-illustrator Zuill, documenting every dog's dream of runnin' wild.