A beautiful pairing of son’s sparse rhyming text with father’s simple drawings says it all in this poignant debut about including others and making friends. A small, lonely dog pokes into garbage cans and hopefully watches a beloved cat with her owner before coming upon a group of children playing ball and gleefully leaping into its midst. The text then shifts to a lonely little boy miserably watching the children and the dog playing. “Left out, no fun. / I wouldn’t do this to anyone.” Eventually the dog notices him and includes him in the game. “When someone’s feeling left out, low, / it doesn’t take much to say…hello!” Michael Foreman’s spare line drawings on the all-white background perfectly capture the misery of being left out. The almost total lack of color enhances the sense of isolation: gray lines depict the characters, blue indicates setting, with red reserved for the ball. Guidance counselors, primary teachers and art teachers will all find a spot for this one on their shelves. (Picture book. 3-7)
