My Big Dog

August 30, 1999
The arrival of a big-hearted, dopey golden retriever puppy disrupts a reigning cat's domain in sister collaborators Stevens (Tops & Bottoms) and Crummel's irresistible tale told from the feline's point of view. Merl, a crotchety brown-and-white cat with a pink play mouse dangling from its mouth, likes things Merl's way: "Inside my house, my pur-r-r-r-fect house, everything is mine! My dish. My sofa. My chair...." The cat is not amused when the new puppy bounds up with her "sloppy, drooly tongue" and tries to make friends. But it gets worse: the dog just keeps getting bigger (shown adorably full-grown in the centerfold with a "Violet" name tag), so the cat sets off in search of a new home until Violet comes along to retrieve Merl. Stevens's busy, close-up pastel drawings underscore Merl's firm position by frequently depicting the cat solo, simply looking out at the viewer. Stevens effectively uses these one-page portraits to convey the cat's internal life through its whiskered disgruntled expressions, uneven ears and lifeless toy mouse, while depicting Merl's interaction with Violet in successive energetic spot drawings. The few times humans are in evidence, they appear in black-and-white photographs that Stevens overlays atop her drawings. The authors' chronicle of the puppy's slow victory over Merl's disaffections works to great comic effect. Ages 3-7.

January 1, 1999
PreS-Gr 2-A disgruntled feline tells his story. Everything in the house belongs to Merl until an intruder arrives-an annoying puppy that licks him and follows him around. When the golden retriever grows up, the cat hits the road, convinced that they can never be friends. Several people try to adopt Merl but nothing works out to his satisfaction. One lady dresses him up with bows and ribbons and a ridiculous striped jacket. Forlorn, he's rescued by the dog and taken home. Maybe they can be friends after all. Merl's first-person narrative is to the point; however, as the action progresses, the cat's deadpan, smugly superior voice begins to border on the pathetic. Instead of staying on the top of his game, he becomes a pawn through his own stubborn behavior; while his dress-up get-up may look funny, it only serves to highlight his fall from grace. Once back home, the cat declares himself the ruler but it's really the dog that wins children's hearts. Initially the scruffy, unkempt, free-flowing pastels are humorous and energizing. In the few scenes with people, the humans are pictured in photographic gray, creating an intriguing and visually arresting juxtaposition to the splashy, colorful animal world. However, as Merl continues to mope about on the pages, readers' interest and sympathy begin to wane. What starts out as funny and original becomes overused. Merl might tell readers he's "a very special cat," but it's hard to know why.-Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI

January 1, 1999
Ages 4^-6. Merl the cat is used to having things his way: "Inside my house, my PUR-R-R-R-fect house, everything is MINE!" he proudly states in his conversational narrative. But when a big puppy moves in, Merl's kingdom is disturbed. All the puppy seems to do is follow Merl around and lick him in an all-out effort to be friends. Merl will have none of it. After all, he reasons, "I am a cat and it is a dog." But after a few failed attempts to get the dog to leave, Merl decides he has no alternative but to pack up and go himself. Children will snicker at the runaway adventures, which teach the curmudgeonly cat that there's no place like home, and they'll like the warm ending: the dog eventually wins Merl over. The depictions of the furry friends are cleverly but subtly integrated with black-and-white photos of people, rounding out this sweet story of sharing that will appeal to cat and dog lovers alike. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)