This book just ate my dog!

September 29, 2014
Byrne's (The Really, Really, Really Big Dinosaur) comedy gets its mileage from a single joke, but his pacing is skillful and his humor sweet-tempered. Bella wears a knit cap and a sensible dress as she takes her gigantic spotted dog for a "stroll across the page." As the dog approaches the center of the spread, where the two pages meet, "something very odd happened." Bella looks back to see that the dog's front half has disappeared into the book's gutter, followed quickly by the rest of it; Bella is left yanking a leash that disappears between facing pages. It's an effective visual trick, and it continues to draw grins as people and vehicles follow Bella's dog into two-dimensional oblivion. Bella's friend Ben disappears ("Ben decided to investigate"), followed by the dog rescue van, the police and fire brigade ("Things were getting ridiculous"), and, finally, by Bella herself. A note asks the reader to shake the book sideways, which restores orderâalmost. It's quick, fizzy entertainment, good as a waiting-room read or an addition to the bedtime pile. Ages 3â6.

September 15, 2014
A carnivorous book invites readers to participate. The book opens with an unseen little girl named Bella calling from within the book to her dog, asleep on the copyright page. Presumably, Bella passed the gutter of the book without event, but this proves confusing given what happens to her dog. As the tragically obedient dog crosses the gutter, it disappears. While Bella is aware that she's in a book, the background illustration could easily be interpreted as the sidewalk of a nondescript street (a less confusing choice may have been a text or white-space background, a la David Wiesner's The Three Pigs). Once her dog disappears completely, various other characters come to help but are also consumed by the book. Eventually, so is Bella, but she sends a note to readers from...beyond...requesting that readers turn the book 90 degrees and shake it. Lo and behold, all the characters fall out, and all ends well. This happy ending presents another mystery: If all those characters were "eaten" by the book, how could they simply fall out? The metafictive picture book has ceased to be a novelty and become its own, increasingly substantial genre, which poses an existential crisis of sorts for it. If metafiction becomes ho-hum ordinary, is it still doing its job? Misses the mark. (Picture book. 4-7)

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August 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 2-This book gives new meaning to pictures being lost in the gutter. Bella takes her dog for a walk across the spread. She makes it to the next page, but her pet doesn't-he begins to disappear into the middle of the book. Bella tells her friend Ben what happened, and he tries to investigate but gets lost himself. A dog rescue car, a fire truck, and a police car all come to help but vanish into the middle as well, so the child finally goes in to check it out herself. A note then appears from Bella, telling readers to turn and shake the book. Everything and everyone come out, and all is set right again-almost. Byrne's comical play on the book's gutter will entertain kids and adults. The subtle background is done in a muted palette so the focus remains on the action and the vivid characters in the foreground. This book will make for a good one-on-one reading, giving children an opportunity to save the day. Pair it with Herve Tullet's Press Here (Chronicle, 2011) to afford children the chance to participate actively with the story.-Emily E. Lazio, The Smithtown Special Library District, NY

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2014
Preschool-G Here's a piece of metafiction ideal for those who have recently mastered physical books. A little girl named Bella is taking her dog for a stroll across the page when the gutter of the actual bookthat seam where the two pages meetsucks up half of the dog, and then the whole darn thing. While Bella stands agog with her leash, her pal Ben shows up to help, but he ends up disappearing into the gutter, too. After the dog-rescue van, fire engine, and police car all vanish the same way, Bella stomps into the void herself. Then, a note flies out of the gutter instructing the reader to lift the book and shake it until all of the characters fall out. And, in two funny vertical spreads, they do. What begins as an existential absurdity ends as an excuse to throttle a book, but it's all good fun. Byrne's use of two-page spreads as a stretch of sidewalk is clever, and the surprise of his melon-headed characters will be reproduced in his readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2015
Opening pages hint that this book will be "naughty" before the story begins -- and then Bella's dog disappears into the gutter on their "stroll across the page." As the pages turn, Bella can only stand on each right-hand page and gape as every offer of help (from a boy named Ben, a rescue vehicle, the police, and the fire brigade) also disappears into the gutter. "I'll just have to sort this out myself, thought Bella," and she follows everyone into that ominous crack in the center of the book. ("BURP!") Fortunately, Bella isn't gone long before a note falls out of the gutter inviting readers to get involved. Turning the book and giving it a good shake or two releases the gutter's victims, and all is well except for some lingering humorous trouble with the right-hand pages. Cartoon illustrations in reds and blues and a succinct text work together in an effective design, building the dramatic humor. An illustrator's aim is to keep important parts of the story out of a picture book's gutter, and this funny, interactive book is a superbly self-aware -- in more ways than one -- exemplar of what not to do. julie roach

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)