FANCY DOGS

The ungroomed truth about classy canines.

“Fancy Dogs have fancy hairdos. // Fancy Dogs wear fancy tutus. // Fancy Dogs sport fancy collars. // Fancy Dogs keep fancy hours.” So begins a series of pronouncements about these posh pups. These statements continue until the omniscient narrator suddenly decides to get real: “Nonetheless, and you know it’s true… // Fancy Dogs still gnaw on shoes. // Fancy Dogs also sniff their own bums. // And sometimes get fleas—where do those come from?” Even when they don’t scan, the rhymes are archly droll. Each illustration but the last, which features a fancy-dog menagerie, is centered on a red pooch with pointy ears, a long snout, and, more often than not, a look of bemusement—even when it’s raising its wineglass by a toilet (“And of course Fancy Dogs still drink from the loo”). Set against flat, cream-colored backdrops, Malina’s illustrations are minimalist beauties with the look of cut-paper compositions. Translated from German and first published in Switzerland, the book slyly sniffs at snobbery (perhaps not just the canine kind) while keeping readers entertained by a pup who’s swanky and stylish on the outside but an everydog on the inside. Or, as the narrator puts it in the book’s closing rhyme, “like any dog, Fancy Ones chase, leap, and prance… // for no Fancy Dog is just fancy-pants.”

A hilarious mock exposé on snooty-looking pooches.