Oh! If Only...

February 1, 2013
Take one playful dog, add a red ball, and the result is mischief. A blond boy in a striped shirt and white tennies tells his woeful but hilarious tale, which begins when he encounters an eager mutt with a little red ball in its mouth: "If only...I hadn't met that dog...." The duo plays a bit, then the ball bounces down a hill and into a gang of stray cats being fed by a kindly old lady in a funny hat. The unsettled cats frighten a flock of birds, who disrupt a parade of uniformed horsemen. Both mounts and men take a tumble, and worst of all, they upset the Queen in her carriage. The dog continues to chase the ball past sentries and servants and into the palace, wrecking carpets and a birthday cake and "lots of fancy stuff." The dog returns the ball to the little boy, and the whole mess is caught on camera and telecast around the "WHOLE WIDE WORLD." The boy's cheeks turn red with embarrassment. If only he'd stayed home....But if he had stayed home that day, he'd never have met this great dog! Foreman's minimal text sometimes tumbles and dances across the page, and his watercolor-and-pastel illustrations capture both motion and dumbstruck faces hilariously. A blithe romp. (Picture book. 3-6)

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March 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 1-A boy recounts a catastrophic chain of events that stem from a seemingly innocent encounter with a dog and a ball. As they begin to play together, the boy bemoans, "If only...I was better at soccer and hadn't tried to show off...," as the ball gets away from him, frightening cats, birds, and horses and disrupting a parade for the Queen's birthday. Worst of all, once the playful dog has wreaked havoc in the palace, he brings the ball right back to the boy...on camera. As families around the world are shown gathering around TVs to point at his red, embarrassed face, the boy wishes he had stayed at home, but if he had, he says, "I would never have met this great dog!" The plaintive refrain carries the story forward swiftly as one event unfolds into another. The ellipses build suspense, indicating that there is more action, and disaster, to come. The watercolor and pastel illustrations complement the text, and vice versa, with the lines of text undulating or bouncing with the action. Nearly every page is full of movement as animals fly or scamper away, and bright primary colors highlight focal points. Kids will enjoy the increasing destruction and silliness, while the minimal text and refrain make this a good read-aloud. A fun choice for those who enjoyed Remy Charlip's Fortunately (Parents' Magazine Pr., 1964), and Allan Ahlberg's Previously (Candlewick, 2007).-Marian McLeod, Darien Library, CT

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2013
Grades K-3 In this sweet, funny exercise in hindsight, a lad wistfully thinks had he only stayed home . . . He wouldn't have met a dog with a ball, and so set off a chain of rapidly escalating chaos, culminating in the utter disruption of the queen's birthday that has him splashed across television screens, the most embarrassed person in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD! Climaxed by a flash of the queen's knickers as she's bowled over in her royal carriage, Foreman's full-bleed, softly textured watercolor scenes capture the expanding turmoil's hilarity. They also show off the small pooch's winning personality so strongly that readers can't help but nod in agreement at the lad's ultimate conclusion: If I had stayed at home that day . . . I would never have met this great dog! Thanks to artful use of page turns and phrases of text separated by ellipses, the comic timing is spot-on in this love note to all ball-carrying canines.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)