Patch

PreS-K—Three vignettes show the unconditional love a young boy holds for his intractable pooch. "Patch is my dog. It's my job to take care of him. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's not." The accompanying illustrations show the child feeding the pup, petting him, and cleaning up after an accident. Despite being reminded not to chase rabbits, Patch does so anyway and ends up full of prickles. "'It's okay, Patch,' I tell him. 'Tomorrow we'll try again.'" The honest look at the ups and downs of pet ownership is both refreshing and realistic. In the second vignette, Patch gets fleas and is relegated to the doghouse. As the boy snuggles in with him, he ponders, "What are a few fleas between friends?" Finally the youngster enters his pet in a contest, and although he is amazing in practice, Patch freezes during the event. Both are disappointed, but later, when they play for fun, he performs like a champ and the boy reaffirms his unconditional love. The illustrations are done in a loose, painterly style with charcoal lines adding definition and detail to muted swatches of color. The blond narrator and his dog are drawn simply but express a lot of emotion through their body language. Although presented as a picture book, the limited vocabulary, short sentences, strong visual cues, and "chapters" make it more of a reader than a storybook. A slight, but sweet and well-executed offering.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, White Bear Lake, MN