Amazon.com Review
Otis, the affable brown-and-white pup with long, floppy ears, first introduced in
Dog Eared, is dismayed when his owner, Lucy, unexpectedly comes home with a new kitten. Lucy and her little sister are so taken with the "meowing fluff ball" that they completely forget to give Otis his breakfast or brush his fur. In fact, they don't even notice when Otis takes off on his own. Out on the town, Otis misbehaves for a while, nosing about in garbage cans and chasing cats. But when the day gets hot, he heads for the shade of the park, where he watches a multitude of happy dogs playing with their owners and indulges in a bit of self pity: "Did they have to share their home with a kitten? ... Were their bellies grumbling? Were their mouths dry? Somehow I didn't think so." Otis attempts to ingratiate himself with other dog-and-owner families, but eventually misses Lucy and decides to go home. She welcomes him with open arms, treats him to a huge pile of bones in his dog dish, and reads him his favorite book,
Great Dogs in History. The hot, bright day is beautifully captured in author/illustrator Amanda Harvey's sun-washed watercolors, and her funny, understated exploration of the ways that dogs and their owners often resemble each other will delight kids and adults alike. (Ages 4 to 8)
--Jennifer Lindsay
From Publishers Weekly
Self-conscious Otis, whose long ears were a source of chagrin in Dog-Eared, now has a rival for his owners' affection: a gray kitten. The spotted hound watches his best friend Lucy and her little sister "fussing over this meowing fluff ball.... The kitten this. The kitten that. I was forgotten." With his plastic dish empty and his fur uncombed, Otis takes to raiding trash cans and chasing cats: "I decided to roam the streets. Doing the things I'm not normally allowed to do. It was a good morning." Otis's matter-of-fact voice lends dignity to his galumphing, brown-and-white-spotted mutt's body. Yet his deadpan statements cannot be mistaken for indifference. His longing for Lucy comes through in his faraway eyes and worried questions: "Was she managing without me?" After choosing a suitable new family at the city park and bunking in a friendly family's laundry room, the runaway bounds home and into Lucy's arms at last. Harvey's delicate watercolor-and-pencil compositions, which give the characters' ears and hair a breezy weightlessness, show that Otis never strays far from his own neighborhood. Lucy-parent-style-doesn't admit she ignored Otis for the kitten, but she cultivates his forgiveness by reading him a book and giving him a hug. With any luck, there will be more dramas to come for these two and their growing family. Ages 3-6.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
