…a sweet narrative that unfolds through pictures alone, with words appearing only in signs and objects in the background…The story is so tightly constructed there's almost no room for interpretation, and I like that. The vigorous pen-and-ink art leaves a lot of white space on the page, with just occasional washes of color, adding to a sense that the book is a straightforward puzzle you're solving with visual clues, like the colors of the balls that belong to each dog.
The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo
★ 10/01/2018
*** "A story that will break hearts so it can put them back together." - Kirkus , starred reviewPublishers Weekly , starred reviewSchool Library Journal , starred reviewThe New York Times Book Review
★ 11/01/2018
PreS-Gr 2— A wordless picture book about a young girl who, while mourning the loss of her missing dog Prudence, rescues a lost dog and faces the inevitable decisions that come with loving and letting go again. Rendered in pen and ink with splashes of subtle watercolor and vibrant gouache, Day's illustrations elegantly highlight Jenn's varied emotions. In a mostly stark, black-and-white world, the use of color for only certain objects, like Jenn's clothes and the dog she rescues, draws attention to the action of the story as well as the overall mood. On a rainy night, Jenn rescues the lost dog Roscoe. Readers soon realize why Jenn is sad. Her world is still mostly monochromatic, but slowly bursts forth into pure color as her heart opens to Roscoe. There is a series of vignettes with them running together, playing ball, and rolling around on the ground. It's when she ties Roscoe to a green telephone pole outside a pet store to buy things for him, that she notices the "Lost" sign with his picture. She wrestles with the choice of what to do. Jenn brings Roscoe back to his original owner and, downtrodden, walks past the Humane Society window, where a forlorn bulldog holds one paw against a window. The ending spread reveals a glimpse of the bulldog's tail disappearing into Jenn's kitchen. This is a beautiful wordless book about love in all its messiness and what it means to open your heart, experience loss, and then open it again. VERDICT A first purchase.—Rachel Zuffa, Case High School, Racine, WI
★ 2018-07-30
After losing their own beloved pet, a young child finds and returns a lost puppy in this wordless picture book from Newman and Day.
On a rainy night, a forlorn pup wanders into a young child's view. The child doesn't hesitate to bring the little dog inside, and once the two are safe and dry inside, photos on the wall and a few abandoned dog toys reveal that the child has lost their own dog. The friendship between the pair is tentative at first, but as the little dog sweetly persists, the child's reticence melts away. But no sooner does the pair begin to bond than they come upon a flier with the pup's picture, and reluctantly the child gives up and returns their new friend. The quiet in this picture book goes far beyond a simple absence of words. The beautifully and visually crafted hush is a wellspring of emotion: the agony of loss, the exuberance of a sudden friendship, the resignation of a hard decision, and finally the guarded hope of a new beginning. Day's ink-and-watercolor illustrations shape the story and capture feeling—that most elusive of narrative dimensions—in effortless sequences of movement and masterful use of color and perspective. The child has fluffy, black hair and paper-white skin.
A story that will break hearts so it can put them back together. (Picture book. 3-7)
