DOG EARED

Otis is a dog, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to an insult hurled his way by a passing bully, a spike-collared boxer with a sneer on his mug. “Big Ears” is what the boxer calls Otis. Well, Otis does have biggish ears, and they seem to be growing by the instant as Otis gazes at them in the reflection of a store window. Otis’s day is shattered. He doesn’t want to play with his chums; he doesn’t want to chase the neighborhood cats. By the time he gets home from his walk, he’s in a swivet. What is he going to do about his terrible, monstrous ears? Roll them into curls? Twist them into a pile atop his head? Bury his head in the sand and never go outside again? He crawls into his bed, ready to bathe in his misery, when the girl who owns him comes to snuggle. She parks her head next to his, covers it with one of his ears, and whispers, “I love your large, silky, fabulous ears, Otis.” The next day dawns bright and the structural damage done to Otis’s self-image is a thing of the past. He sidles out the door, into the park, and when the boxer shouts “Fat Face!” at him, he shrugs it off: “I don’t think so.” Terrific—a dazzling combination of humorous, liquid writing and old-fashioned, tinted line drawings, certain to find a home with anyone who needs a shot of confidence-building. (Picture book. 3-6)