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HONDO & FABIAN by Peter McCarty

HONDO & FABIAN

by Peter McCarty & illustrated by Peter McCarty

Pub Date: April 1st, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6352-8
Publisher: Henry Holt

Sepia-toned, subtly textured pencil drawings on cream-colored paper give this pet’s-eye view of a day’s adventures an air of polished, if slightly distant, elegance. Hondo the dog and Fabian the cat rise from their favorite snoozing spots to go in different directions: Hondo, to play on the beach with a furry friend; Fabian, to escape a toddler’s clutches, and later to unroll some toilet paper. Both show unusual restraint—this may present a credibility problem for pet-owners—in passing up, respectively, a tempting bucket of just-caught fish, and a turkey sandwich, but after Hondo’s return the two chow down from side-by-side pet dishes, then it’s off to slumberland once again. Captioned by a very brief, present-tense text that passes the point of view back and forth, the illustrations convey a feeling of comfortable interspecies amiability more akin to Steven Kellogg’s A Rose for Pinkerton (1981) than Donald Hall’s I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat (1994). (Picture book. 5-8)