LITTLE LOVABLE LUCY'S BIG DAY

A small pup meets her forever family in this simply worded picture book.

Lovable Lucy, a small brown pup with a white belly and white paws, is both excited and nervous about meeting her forever family. “My tail is very confused,” she confesses. But her new family members—a mother, a father, and three children—are all ready to love her and guide her around her new home. Lucy compares her curly fur, freckles, floppy ears, and brown eyes to the features of her diverse family members (depicted in Hernandez’s illustrations as a family of varying skin tones, eye colors, and hair types). When the newness becomes overwhelming, her family steps in to help. Authors Roth and Penn ably depict the mixed emotions both animals and humans experience when encountering something new and possibly scary, even when it’s exciting. The simple sentences and vocabulary make this a good choice for emerging readers, although Lucy’s calling herself “little me” sometimes creates odd grammatical structures (“Little me is sleepy from my big day”). Hernandez’s cartoon illustrations capture the family warmly welcoming Lucy into their home. The design choice to depict Lucy’s wagging as text within the illustration makes for fun, repeated words throughout.

A sweet introduction to the process of welcoming a new pet.