PILOT PUPS

What do all your toys do when you’re not around? One minute the bedroom looks quiet and orderly; the next, two of the three stuffed dogs on the bed hop into the toy airplane, seeking adventure. Tightly rhyming text documents their journey around the bedroom, all over the kitchen and then outside, where they call a helicopter (steered by the third dog) to hoist a stranded toy engine and its two workers. At journey’s end (“Pups glide softly to the ground . . . / Everybody’s safe and sound”) the bedroom still looks quiet, and the stuffed dogs are back in place—and next to them on the bed are the rescued toy engine and train workers. Andreasen’s illustrations, which are rendered in oil paints on cotton canvas, have a dreamy glow as they depict the two identical pups, floppy ears streaming back in the wind, seamed noses always pointing the way. An appealing, if slight, romp for the very young. (Picture book. 3-5)