THE TAIL OF LUMPY LUV MELONHEAD

A debut picture book chronicles the journey of a childlike dog to his forever home.

Lumpy Luv Melonhead, a yellow Lab, considers himself a lucky dog. Lumpy recalls his early days, when he got lost from his original family. After many hardships as a stray, he spied his opportunity: “I saw a car with its trunk open. The car belonged to a good family so I quickly jumped in.” Now, Lumpy is with his forever family in Washington, D.C. Yakovleff’s innocent narrative uses simple vocabulary to depict Lumpy as a dog with a sunny disposition. The author playfully portrays the pooch answering common childhood questions, such as what he wants to be when he grows up. The story uses a multitude of Yakovleff’s action-packed photographs of her own dog, also named Lumpy, to show the canine’s escapades (including many images of the Lab in costume). These are placed atop debut illustrator Rusnak’s brush-stroked backgrounds, which add splashes of color and a fun paw print design. While most of the shots appear natural, some are clearly staged. Others are more obviously digitally altered, such as Lumpy’s image in front of many iconic locations in Washington. While the author never indicates that the book is based on a true story, the combination of natural and tweaked images may confuse the youngest readers about whether the tale is fictional.

A lively canine tale with vibrant but sometimes modified photos.