WHEN LUCY GOES OUT WALKING

Lucy’s forays into the outside world give the youngest readers a glance at the typical weather in a northerly clime and activities popular for each of the 12 months of the year, as well as a look at how quickly a puppy grows up. January sees Lucy as the tiniest of puppies, enjoying the snow while her companion crafts a snowman. With each turn of the page she grows until, by December, she is all grown up. The rhyming verses scan well, making this a great choice for shared readings with young children. Wolff’s gouache illustrations cleverly incorporate “dog-eared” pages that give readers the opportunity to see what the previous month was (in both name and activity) and what the next month holds. Refreshingly, December’s activity is not Christmas. The companionship and love shared between the dog and the boy is clearly evident and also not surprising—the model for the dog, as in many of her other books, is her pet Border Collie, Lucy, while the boy could pass for one of her sons. A dog-lover’s look at the changing seasons. (Picture book. 3-7)