One Puppy, Two Puppies, Three Puppies, Four

When you put a puppy in a room full of children regardless of their ages, it's an instant lovefest.  Most of the children, if not all of them, want to touch the furry bundle of energy.  And the puppy wants to give every single one of them a big, sloppy hello kiss.

As the puppy bounds around the room from person to person, an observer will see their nose in constant motion, taking in all the various smells.  It's the ultimate way in which they solve their curiosity.  Pippa & Percival Pancake & Poppy: Four Peppy Puppies (Sleeping Bear Press, March 15, 2018) written by Deborah Diesen with illustrations by Grace Zong is the joyful journey of playful puppies. 

A puppy named Poppy
Went out for a run,
Tumbling, rumbling,
Looking for fun.

Stopping at a fence she heard

a big sound.

Nothing was going to stop this pooch, so she dug a hole to investigate.  She found another puppy.  Pancake and Poppy scampered and explored until they came to a large stump.  Guess what they heard?

When they climbed on top, they spied another furry fellow on the other side.  Percival, Pancake and Poppy romped down the road until they came to a big pile of leaves.  They listened.  They had to find out what was causing the commotion.  It was a cute canine youngster.

Puppies numbering four, Pippa, Percival, Pancake and Poppy, wandered and searched until they came to unfamiliar territory.  It was dark and dingy in the alley.  It was a dead end.

A horrible sight met their eyes.  Puppies numbering four ran and ran and ran.  They used their superior sniffers to find what all puppies want at the end of an exciting escapade. 


Toe-tapping, finger-snapping and knee-slapping will begin as soon as the first four words written by Deborah Diesen are read.  Her superb command of word selection creates a rhyming rhythm as spirited and comical as the puppies.  The repetition of key phrases and pauses invite audience participation.  Here are two passages.

Pancake and Poppy
Paraded along.
Gleeful and playful,
Their puppy legs strong.

They came to a stump.
They heard a big sound.
They clambered up over,
And that's when they found . . . 


No one will be able to look at the four puppies happily running down the road without smiling.  Their exhibited joy is contagious.  The road extends over the spine on the matching dust jacket and book case revealing a grove of trees turning colors for autumn and lining a fence.  In the foreground two late blooming coneflowers add to the fall splendor. 

Vibrant colors are displayed at every page turn.  Not a single bit of space is wasted.  One bright green endpaper is opposite the title page featuring the puppies still running down the road in single file.  Butterflies are following them.  Percival has a flower in his mouth now.  At the close of the book the endpapers feature a full two page image with the publication information on the left.

All of the illustrations span two pages or are placed on a single page opposite a white page with two words of text.  Grace Zong shifts her perspective to enhance the text. It's the looks on the dog's faces and their body postures which will endear readers to the four pups.  They are very expressive and simply adorable.

One of my many favorite pictures is when the fourth pup, Pippa is discovered.  Four tree trunks are lined up in the background.  A colorful pile of leaves nearly spans the single page.  The three other dogs with heads raised are looking at Pippa who popped out of the pile of leaves.  All their mouths are open in greeting.  Pippa looks overjoyed.


If you are looking for a title guaranteed to delight the story time crowd (and anyone else young at heart) or a fantastic book to close the day at bedtime, Pippa & Percival Pancake & Poppy:  Four Peppy Puppies written by Deborah Diesen and illustrated by Grace Zong is an excellent choice.  As reader's theater or for creative drama, it would be fun with a capital F.  I haven't stopped smiling since I opened the cover and neither will your readers.  You'll want a copy for your professional and personal book shelves.

To learn more about Deborah Diesen and her other work, please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  Here is a link to Deborah Diesen's blog, Jumping The Candlestick.  Deborah is interviewed at HENRYHERZ.COM.  Grace Zong is showcased at Studio Goodwin Sturges.  At the publisher's website you can read an excerpt.  

SMILE! Click!

Oh, yes...it's a day unlike any other.  It's a day filled with distractions in the classroom.  It's a day of long waits in line and the wearing of dress-up, sometimes uncomfortable, clothing.  For parents it's remembering to fill out the form, including the proper amount of money and hoping this will be THE year.  Truth be told, for teachers, it's a day unlike any other, filled with distractions in the classroom, long waits in line and students fidgeting in clothing they don't normally wear BUT it's also a day filled with interesting insights and unexpected surprises.

Neat and clean, wearing their favorite shirt, maybe even a tie, pants, blouse, skirt or dress, boys and girls arrive ready to rock school picture day. At least one hundred times they've been told to sit up straight and smile, but be natural and relax at the same time.  They, of course, are wondering at the improbability of those things occurring together.  Picture Day Perfection (Abrams Books for Young Readers) written by Deborah Diesen with illustrations by Dan Santat follows the singular efforts of one boy to achieve greatness on this very important annual occurrence.

I'd planned for months. 
This was going to be the year
of the perfect school picture.

But some days, not everything goes 
according to plan.

 It happens to all of us, despite the precautions taken the night before and our best efforts to sleep soundly without tossing and turning.  We wake up, look in the mirror and see the dreaded bedhead.  Well, perhaps a favorite article of clothing will compensate for the overabundance of unruly hair.  It's not looking exactly tidy from being in the dirty clothes basket but it will have to do.

Now it's on to a pancake kind of breakfast.  Yikes!  It's a maple syrup eruption!  The bus ride to school is less than stellar.  What's that?   The background box checked on the form just so happens to be the same color as that favorite shirt?!  At the moment this is looking like the farthest thing from a perfect kind of school picture day.  It's like this dude has been zapped by the Master of Disaster

Trouble is following this boy around like a shadow, even when practicing smiling.  Paint seems to go everywhere but on his project in Art.  When it's finally time for the picture taking, hearing the photographer say "Cheese" umpteen times, makes his stomach churn and gurgle.

Yes! Oh no! Yes! There's always next year.


Deborah Diesen knows how to build a story sentence by sentence.  With a practiced preciseness she gives each calamity a little more comedy than the one before by placing emphasis on certain words, words added to create exaggerated drama.  We readers turn the pages in anticipation,  wondering what new mishap will befall our protagonist, when the first unexpected twist is thrown our way, quickly followed by another.  Readers won't know whether to laugh at themselves or the guy who has plotted and prepared for 365 days.  Here's a sample, which is great to read to yourself but even better read aloud.

Then it took me quite some time to unearth my favorite shirt.
I finally found it at the very bottom of the hamper.

You might call it "stained."
You might call it "wrinkled."
You might even call it "smelly."
You wouldn't be wrong.


Taking the picture options, the mixture of sizes you get in a typical school picture package, illustrator Dan Santat divides them up, placing the largest on the front jacket, sets of the two smaller choices on the back jacket.  For each of the eleven images the boy's face assumes a different expression, each one more hilarious than the other.  (You have to wonder who the model was for these.)  The front and back cover highlight illustrations from within the story.  Opening and closing endpapers mirror a single and two partial rows of pictures like in a yearbook, leaving an empty frame in the back for your personal photograph.  All the guys and gals are sporting their own unique grins.

Prior to the title pages we are given a hint, Santat style, of possibilities in the narrative; a red, hand-drawn smiley face wearing a mischievous look.  This particular drawing does appear several more times in the book.  Each set of double pages zooms in on an entire image, a group of smaller images opposite a single picture, or large close-ups over fainter elements in the background.  The photographic theme is found in the attention to details; the eyes, nose and grin formed on the pancake stack with fruit, butter and bacon, four-printed snapshots of bedhead, student pictures as slides, publication and pricing information on a photographer's background with camera equipment placed nearby.

The bright, bold colors and definitive lines of these illustrations rendered in Adobe Photoshop, bring the text to life with the same energy as the main character's unfortunate moments throughout the day.  No one portrays humor exactly like Dan Santat does;  the looks on the boy's face alone are enough to have readers exploding with laughter.  From covered in syrup, to walking dismally down the hallway, to the shock of blending into the background, to goofy grin, painted splattered and rascal supreme, we see a person brimming with personality.  It seems pretty perfect to me.


Without a doubt you are going to want to have a copy of Picture Day Perfection written by Deborah Diesen with illustrations by Dan Santat in your personal, classroom or school library.  This team has depicted the misadventures of a boy bent on bringing a bold plan to fruition with the sure knowledge of firsthand experience. I know you will be hearing "read it again" over and over.

If you want to discover more about the work of either Deborah Diesen or Dan Santat follow the links embedded in their names above to access their websites.  Enjoy the book trailer below.