Puppy Pal

There is nothing that makes me want to roll around on the floor as much as a passel of puppies.  Even the presence of one will draw children (and adults) to it like metal to a magnet.  There's something about their eyes, ears, too big paws, little cold noses, chunky bellies and the wobbly way they walk and run, that's hard to resist.

Apparently humans are not the only ones who find them to be perfect pals.  The champion of charm, humble and heartwarming little red tractor, Otis, is putt puff puttedy chuffing his way back into our reading lives with his newest title, Otis and the Puppy (Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.) written and illustrated by Loren Long.  It seems the change in seasons is bringing more than usual to the farm.

It was springtime on the farm where the friendly little tractor named Otis lived.  The flowers bloomed, the trees were filled with leaves, and the farm buzzed with the joy of a new season.

During the day he and the farmer prepared the fields for planting but when their work was done the fun began.  Otis and his barnyard friends liked nothing better than a rousing game of hide-and-seek; especially when Otis was it.  Like a group of neighborhood children, they played until just before dark.

As they made their way to the barn one evening the farmer had something special to show them, a burlap bag.  As they watched it move and make sounds their curiosity mounted.  When they saw a puppy pop out, planting puppy kisses all around, their happiness grew and grew.

After everyone was in their places fast asleep Otis was awakened by puppy-in-distress noises.  Otis, clicking on his light, left the barn to investigate.  His new friend was not comfortable alone in the dark in the old doghouse.

Each night from then on, one little puppy would be snuggled up with one little tractor in the barn.  One day during a fun-filled game of hide-and-seek with Otis being it, the puppy forgot to hide, being distracted by a new thing.  The puppy forgot all about playing.  The puppy got lost.

Otis found everyone but the puppy.  All the animals and the farmer looked in every nook and cranny for the little guy until it was past-bedtime late.  Back at the barn Otis could not sleep knowing how afraid of the dark his pooch pal was.  He understood that fear; Otis was afraid of the dark, too.

What Otis wants to do is find his friend.  Otis wants to shine his light in the darkness, moving through the woods to rescue the puppy.  Otis wants the strength of friendship, his desire to do the right thing, to overcome his own fear.  Hide-and-seek skills, for one loving to be it, can come in handy in the nick of time.


Four years ago when Loren Long introduced readers to a friendly little tractor, barn red in color, who putt puff puttedy chuffed his way through a story full of heart, he gave us an enduring character, a home-grown hero you can't help but love.  Using simple, descriptive, almost lyrical, sentences with a pacing gently unfolding the story, readers enter life on the farm with Otis and his friends.  Word choice deepens the mood of the moment, the sense of emotions and the readers' attachment to the friendly little tractor.  Here are a couple of examples.

And then, as quickly as he had jumped out of the sack, he wobbled over to Otis, leaned on his tire, yawned, slouched, and plopped off to sleep.

Otis finished counting, peeled out, and motored here and there, putt, puff puttedy chuff, swerving and darting and skidding as fast as he could to find his friends.

Just inside the forest, Otis stopped dead in his tracks.  The sounds of the night crackled, thumped, and croaked all around him.


Unlike the two previous titles, Otis and Otis and the Tornado, with a more subdued color palette, this title's matching jacket and cover, a cloud for the highlighted background, is surrounded in a pale sunny blue; a sense of lightness, laughter even, shines forth.  The deep silver opening and closing endpapers showcase a single image of Otis on the move in white. The initial single title page, in white, shows the puppy stretched out curiously looking at a blue butterfly.  In contrast the two page illustration for the second title pages foreshadows the fears to be met with a night scene of the barn on the hill opposite the edge of the forest.

Using pencil and gouache Long's illustrations seem to have a luminous deep silver (of the endpapers) quality to them.  He shifts perspective and size fashioning a companionable flow with his narrative; single page, double page, smaller groupings with portions breaking outside the frame, or singular visuals unframed, surrounded by white for emphasis.  During the hide-and-seek game when the puppy becomes lost the narrative never states the distraction or what the puppy is doing; the illustrations tell a parallel tale.  There is a definite classic richness to Loren Long's work in the Otis books.


Whether you are a fan of the Otis books or not, Otis and the Puppy written and illustrated by Loren Long will have you falling in love with this friendly little tractor again or for the first time and quickly seeking out the earlier titles.  Everyone needs a friend like Otis.  When they read these books, he is not just the friend of the calf, the bull or the puppy but their friend too.

Be sure to visit Loren Long's website for lots of Otis extras; the link is embedded in his name.  Follow this link to the publisher website for a sneak peak at a few pages.  Loren Long visited teacher librarian John Schumacher's school this year.  Follow this link to his blog, Watch. Connect. Read. to share in the delights of the day.

It's How Big?

Your heart races, your breathing speeds up and your eyes get as big as saucers.  Whether real or imagined, those are signs fear is present.  Your body is gearing up for the classic flight or fight.

Fear can also be a matter of perspective, lessening or growing depending on the individual person.  Author/illustrator, Levi Pinfold, in his second picture book, Black Dog (templar books, an imprint of Candlewick Press), in a most charming way, focuses on fear.  It seems the Hope family has a huge problem...or do they?

One day, a black dog came to visit the Hope family.  Mr. Hope was the first to see it.



Breakfast toast dropping to the floor Mr. Hope is shocked by what he sees out the window.  In a flash he's on the phone to the local police, claiming there's a dog the size of a tiger outside his home. Laughing they tell him not to go out.

Mrs. Hope gets up shouting to anyone who will listen, there's a dog as big as an elephant near their home.  Mr. Hope's solution is to hide in darkness by shutting off the lights.  As each of the children rise and begin to perform their morning rituals noticing the dog, his size magnifies as do the remedies for security.

There must be something strange in the air beyond the confines of the Hope abode.  That black dog grows from elephant to Tyrannosaurus rex, and finally to Big Jeffy.  Big Jeffy?  Lights off, check, curtains closed, check, hiding under the covers, check.  The Hope family is hoping.

Small Hope, the youngest and shortest, thinks Mr. Hope, Mrs. Hope, Adeline and Maurice are being utterly ridiculous.  To their horror, she bundles up, resolutely walks out the door and right up to the canine creature, who truth be told, compared to her, is big.  Singing a song she entices the black dog to follow along.

Her melody leads him under a bridge, over a frozen pond, down and around the playground for fun and through the cat door back home.  How is that possible?  Maybe a little hope is exactly what you need to face fear, to see the truth.  And when you see truth it might follow you home.


Levi Pinfold's  narrative is light, lively and guaranteed to have any reader smiling by the end of the first page.  With great success he creates a pattern of each member awakening, dropping an item, calling for help and asking for advice slightly altering responses to fit the family member.  When Small Hope confronts the black dog another rhythm is established.  Each time her different two line rhymes are sung, the same phrase follows.  In fact Pinfold uses it as his final line.  Perfection.

"You can't follow where I go,
unless you shrink, or don't you know?"


A luxurious, metallic, silvery winterscape with the Hope family home and Small Hope outside spreads across the jacket with three tiny sepia-toned insets on the back.  Unlike the jacket the cover is a version of the snowy woods empty of life, but close inspection shows a nearly invisible trail of paw prints.  The front endpapers are a replica of the jacket including the title page and verso.  A mirror image of the cover decorates the closing endpapers.

Using tempera paint on paper, some self-prepared, other premixed, Levi Pinfold's illustrations are magical.  He brings readers into a world of rumpled domestic bliss, slightly old fashioned, a little eccentric. Each of the two page spreads, until Small gazes up at the black dog, showcase a detailed full color visual on the right.  On the left six specifically-shaped, brown-hued exquisite miniature pictures frame the text on the top and bottom, reflecting the action.

Four lush, colorful illustrations span two pages as Small Hope faces the black dog leading him with her song around the village and surrounding woods until the two return home.  Inside again the original pattern repeats until the family gathers.  Readers will want to carefully examine every nook and cranny of each illustration noticing all the special touches; the childlike drawing on a kitchen cupboard labeled Jeffy, a pink elephant toy in Maurice's bedroom becomes a piece of playground equipment or the Royal typewriter sitting out in the open.


Black Dog written and illustrated by Levi Pinfold is absolutely stunning in its narrative and art.  I can't imagine this not becoming a favorite to be read again and again, relished at each reading.  Never has facing one's fears been so enjoyable.