SMART GEORGE

The perverse pooch of Bark, George (1999) is back, obstinate as ever.

“One plus one equals what, George?” the pup’s patient mother asks. But George isn’t playing that game and instead of answering demands to be fed. “Two plus two equals what?” and subsequent posers are likewise stonewalled…until George falls asleep and dreams of trees—first one, then two, and on up to 10—demanding to be added up. “I don’t have time for this,” George complains. But as Feiffer, ever the master of psychological insight, well knows, the temptation to count is too strong for George, or young viewers, to resist for long. The slender tree trunks, each a different color to smoothly facilitate the arithmetical operations, line up against pale monochrome backdrops. In the characteristically minimalist cartoon illustrations they are joined in teasing the reluctant pup on to numeracy by a cat, a pig, a cow, the veterinarian first met in George’s debut, and finally George’s mother. She wakes her puppy up, and off they go for a walk so that George can show off those new counting skills. Where Bark, George mined the sight of the vet pulling animal after animal from George’s gullet for laughs, this follow-up is more quietly thoughtful, but Feiffer’s linework is as fine and fluid as ever, and his canny placement of speech balloons gives even the trees personality. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 49% of actual size.)

Arithmetic is as easy as one, two, three with the right approach.