WHERE’S PUP?
by Dayle Ann Dodds & illustrated by Pierre Pratt
Keeping lines to four words or less but with vocabulary that will challenge emergent readers, Dodds (The Kettles Get New Clothes, 2002, etc.) sends a clown across circus grounds in search of an errant puppy. Using a bright red-orange color scheme with occasional flashes of deep blue, Pratt (No, No, Jack!, 2002, etc.) depicts the diminutive searcher questioning a succession of busy acrobats and animal tenders: “Hi there, Jess! Hi there, Bess! Where’s Pup?” “Can’t see. Go ask Lee. He’s launching Dee.” Finally the quest ends: “Can’t find Pup? Just look up”—at a page that unfolds . . . and unfolds . . . and unfolds again to reveal a human pyramid with the smiling stray at the very top. Fans of P.D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? (1960), Eric Hill’s Where’s Spot? (1980), and a plethora of similar hide-and-seek variants will welcome this fresh addition to the genre, particularly for its crowd-pleasing climax. (Picture book. 4-6)