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LUCY RESCUED by Harriet Ziefert

LUCY RESCUED

by Harriet Ziefert & illustrated by Barroux

Pub Date: April 24th, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60905-187-7
Publisher: Blue Apple

Lucy may have been rescued from the animal shelter, but this pup takes time to adjust to her new, loving family.

The little girl in Lucy’s new family narrates the story of her fraught homecoming. At first, all is well as Lucy gets a tour of the house and backyard, but then the barking of a neighbor's dog scares her, and she hides under a bush. “I finally got Lucy to come out from behind the bush …That’s when the howling began.” In ensuing spreads, the family tries to comfort Lucy and quell her incessant howling. Ultimately, the girl lovingly gives up her “favorite stuffed animal,” which seems to do the trick. She tries to draw the line when Lucy wants another toy, but she gives in and then her parents add to Lucy’s collection, which amounts to, “… four dogs, two bears, two kittens, and one giraffe.” While having this bevy of toys soothes Lucy, their number leads to new trouble when she can’t find them all at bedtime. The girl helps her, though, and she isn’t at all put out, saying, “ ‘Good night, my perfect puppy!’ ” at book’s end. Throughout, cheery, cartoon-style illustrations depict the scenes with the good addition of hand-lettered text to highlight Lucy’s howling. The pages are filled with tiny iterations of "WAH-OOO-OOO," the letters filling readers’ eyes even as the sounds fill Lucy's family's home.

A sweet take on the bumps in the road home for one shelter dog

. (Picture book. 3-6)