TRUELOVE

Putting a characteristically screwy spin on the sappy “Love Is . . . ” formula, Cole (Hair in Funny Places, 2000, etc.) matches platitudes—“Love feels like a warm puppy,” “Love means sharing,” “Love makes you do silly things sometimes”—to wild scenes. She features a pop-eyed little dog who runs away from home after the arrival of a new baby, then falls in with other strays who commandeer a car to crash into a sausage shop, and is finally rescued from police custody (along with all of the other dogs) by the remorseful parents. It’s all in good fun, ends with a reassuring thought—“Sometimes love isn’t easy, but there’s always enough to go around”—and makes a refreshing anodyne to the gooier valentines of Joan Walsh Anglund, Charlotte Zolotow, and their legions of modern imitators. (Picture book. 5-7)