| Health & Daily Living |
| Social Themes |
| Depression & Mental Illness |
| Juvenile Fiction |
| Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries |
Summary
Summary
A stray dog worries about going hungry before a little girl adopts him with her grandma. With a new home and a new family, both the dog and the little girl find comfort in each other during difficult times.
Author Notes
The internationally recognized authors of the Hopeful Picture Books series have recieved the China Science Writers Association Golden Prize, Best Works Award in Jiangsu, Bing Xin Children's Book Award, and the Feng Zikai Picture Book Award for Creative Writing. Their Works have been included in China's Key Topics for Thematic Learning and the National Support Project for Comics and Animation.
Reviews (1)
Kirkus Review
A stray dog fends for himself during a period of frightening disruption in this Chinese import. As the story opens, a young girl and her grandmother bring the dog food regularly. The little girl enjoys playing with the dog, but her parents won't allow her to take him home. One day, his bowl is empty, and so are the streets. The pooch sees some people in masks but doesn't understand what's happening. As time passes, the dog grows hungrier and thinner. The girl reappears and brings him home--her parents, presumably medical workers, have been called away because people are getting sick. The child, via her smartphone, is finally given permission to keep the dog. They wait for the parents to return and for the day they can all go outside once again. Ai and Xing's rather flat and simplistic story of a pandemic is narrated by the dog protagonist, who varies between ignorance and omniscience. He seems to know why the girl's parents won't allow her to take him home and why the parents have to leave. Although a lockdown is implied, the girl and her grandmother go out to retrieve the dog anyway. Illness is only mentioned in passing but nothing about a quarantine or widespread contamination. The soft-edged illustrations add little, though the dog is cute; human characters throughout have pale skin, and the setting is ambiguous. A disappointing story with a hopeful ending. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
