MICKEY OF LAS VEGAS

This wordy children’s tale follows a show dog in Las Vegas whose lack of talent and huge appetiteleads to eventual retirement in Sun City.

Maurice, nicknamed Mickey, is part of a poodle act called “Mr. Hugo and His Amazing Dogs,” runby a showman and magician with the assistance of his daughter Clarice. Along with Pepe, Prince, Gigiand Simone—who jump through flaming hoops, waltz, sing and clown around—Mickey spends his dayson the hotel and children’s party circuit. Unlike his fellow pooches, however, the only “trick” Mickey cando is disappear from a blue box then magically reappear in a red box via a narrow underground plastictube connecting the two. One day Mickey manages to sneak out and eat all the leftovers in the hotelkitchen, which leaves him too bloated to pull off the act at the next night’s show. Mr. Hugo banishes Mickey, but Clarice takes pity on the poorpoodle and drives him to the Sun City area of Las Vegas where she and her friend Steve discover an animal hospital. There they pretend Mickeyis a lost dog that they found in order to leave him in the care of the kindly Dr. Andrews. Soon Mickey befriends a tan poodle named Jerry—afriendship that will change his life. While this colorfully illustrated story has a worthwhile moral of loving someone “for who he is, not just lovedfor what he can do,” the book itself is so cluttered with extraneous words and details that it’s like digging for a buried bone to get to the heart ofMickey’s tale. Parenthetical asides such as “(This is a French name too, and it sounds like Clare-e-e-e-ce.)” and “(Clarice was afraid to do thisherself because someone might recognize her from the show.)” are not only unnecessary but distracting.

In general, the information overload isdifficult for an adult to digest let alone a young reader.A valuable lesson in need of streamlining.