DON’T LICK THE DOG

Eye-popping colors and exaggerated shapes with sharp edges are the defining characteristics of Wahman’s distinctive illustrations for this how-to on meeting new canine friends. She offers stylized dogs with swirling lines, curly fur and a couple of impossibly long tongues that humorously refer back to the volume’s title. A few lines of rhyming text on each spread offer simple tips for getting along with unfamiliar dogs, such as giving dogs their own space and staying away from a dog that is growling. Several ways to make friends with dogs are also explained, with preferred methods of offering a treat or petting a dog explained in a manner that young children can understand. This effort might not work for young children who already have a fear of dogs, as there are a couple of references to dogs who bite, and several illustrations of growling dogs are on the scary side, but overall it provides a jazzy, unusual introduction to the subject for children who don’t have dogs of their own. (Informational picture book. 3-6)