Found - Hardcover

Jeff Newman grew up in Ashland, Massachusetts, and attended The Art Institute of Boston. His picture books include Hippo! No, Rhino; The Boys; Hand Book; The Greedy Worm; and Found. He currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Larry Day is the award-winning illustrator of over twenty-five picture books, both fiction and nonfiction. He was born and raised in Gibson City, Illinois, where he flunked high school art before becoming a storyboard artist and picture book illustrator. Day currently lives in Illinois with his wife, author Miriam Busch.

PreS-Gr 2-A wordless picture book about a young girl who, while mourning the loss of her missing dog Prudence, rescues a lost dog and faces the inevitable decisions that come with loving and letting go again. Rendered in pen and ink with splashes of subtle watercolor and vibrant gouache, Day's illustrations elegantly highlight Jenn's varied emotions. In a mostly stark, black-and-white world, the use of color for only certain objects, like Jenn's clothes and the dog she rescues, draws attention to the action of the story as well as the overall mood. On a rainy night, Jenn rescues the lost dog Roscoe. Readers soon realize why Jenn is sad. Her world is still mostly monochromatic, but slowly bursts forth into pure color as her heart opens to Roscoe. There is a series of vignettes with them running together, playing ball, and rolling around on the ground. It's when she ties Roscoe to a green telephone pole outside a pet store to buy things for him, that she notices the "Lost" sign with his picture. She wrestles with the choice of what to do. Jenn brings Roscoe back to his original owner and, downtrodden, walks past the Humane Society window, where a forlorn bulldog holds one paw against a window. The ending spread reveals a glimpse of the bulldog's tail disappearing into Jenn's kitchen. This is a beautiful wordless book about love in all its messiness and what it means to open your heart, experience loss, and then open it again. VERDICT A first purchase.-Rachel Zuffa, Case High School, Racine, WIα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.