PET DAD

A little girl who desperately wants a pet and a dad who most definitely does not find some common ground.

Plum is a little girl who never takes no for an answer. So when her dad says no to a pet, she gets herself a pet dad. With dad’s tie as a leash, Plum struts out with her new pet, but when she tries to train “Schnitzel,” she runs into some snags. “Roll over” is met with a “No.” He doesn’t want to eat yard waste (which she thinks is pretty close to his kale and quinoa), and he does his business reading the paper, not on it. At the park, Plum’s efforts are further thwarted until some “free time” (a timeout) leads her to the answer: Her pet needs a reward. And what do pet dads like? “No + Hug = Yes!” “And from that day forward, Plum and her pet enjoy many years of friendship and love.” Allen’s pen-and-ink illustrations with digital color use a palette of dusky blue, orange, and lime green to marvelous effect. Plum is a light-brown–skinned girl with black, scribbly hair barely contained in two braids. Her determination is writ large in her every posture and facial expression. Her dad has pale skin and a shock of white hair.

A clever lesson in manners wrapped in an imaginative, tongue-in-cheek tale of father/dog–daughter bonding.