FROM THE DOGHOUSE

The stunning, beaded illustrations are clearly the best-in-show winners of this thematic collection of 25 poems celebrating canines. In their collective picture book debut, the four artists have created beaded illustrations using rows of tiny beads on colored backgrounds with clever additions of larger beads, buttons, and charms interspersed for variety. Their beaded dogs (and a few companion cats) have plenty of humor and personality, including some imaginative pooches: a sheriff dog in a ten-gallon hat, an astrodog in a silver spaceship, and two scuba-diving dogs. In her first published work, Sklansky offers a variety of poetic forms, mostly rhymed, all written in first person from a dog’s point of view. Several poems examine a dog’s dreams or nightmares, while others focus on standard features of a dog’s life (fleas, baths, bones, balls, digging holes, and affection for human owners). The creative design includes different type treatments, borders, backgrounds, and illustration placement that make the most of this unusual medium. The final page includes additional facts about the beadwork and short bios with tiny self-portraits of the bead artists. (Poetry. 5-9)