POODLE AND HOUND

Friends Poodle and Hound learn to understand each other in three related short stories for new readers. At first, Poodle seems self-absorbed and overly concerned with her looks, but she ends up showing she’s got a lot more on her mind. The first story, which lacks the clear plot of the others, might cause a new reader to give up, revolving as it does around the alarmed looks of a pair of corgis when a newly coiffed Poodle talks to herself in a restaurant. In the second, Hound loves to stargaze and wishes Poodle would stop distracting him from his calculations, but when she spins a fantastic tale about the moon and Saturn, Hound finds a new appreciation for her intelligence. In the last story, Poodle proves herself again when Hound is planting a vegetable garden and is not interested in planting flowers. Poodle uses her wits to plan a surprise attack on bugs that might attack the veggies and ends up with what she wanted all along. Vane’s humorous watercolors, especially Poodle’s creative outfits, add some depth to these stories, but they lack spark. (Early reader. 4-8)