LOOSE LEASHES

From a Boston terrier blowing a giant pink bubble to a solemn Weimaraner on artfully placed ice skates, this picture book plays sometimes amusing games with illustrations and viewers’ minds. Each full-page photograph of a dog (or two) is accompanied by a brief poem. An Italian greyhound poses on a stack of books, his eyes enormously magnified by oversized eyeglasses (“There once was a dog that could read / With amazing page-turning speed”); a Labrador retriever lugs an axe, a spruce strapped to his back (“Out among the pines / A laberjack spends his day. / Timber! A tree falls”). The poems are followed by two pages of “Furry Facts,” brief, fan-magazine–style bios of the animals with their favorite songs, pet peeves, etc. For example, the bespectacled Monte “once took a class to become a Seeing Eye dog.” The result is unbridled preciosity. For those who find hilarity in anthropomorphism this may be a desirable read, but it is difficult to see any need to add it to any but the largest poetry collections. (Poetry. 8-12)