Hotdog!

March 1, 2020

Gr 1-4-Hotdog and his friends meet to fly a kite when a baby bird falls from its nest. Liz the lizard, Kevin the cat, and Hotdog (the barking kind not the yummy food) search for the bird's mother. Hotdog, who has temporarily lost his sense of smell, and his pals are resourceful as they cross rivers and track down birds: Kev's cow costume fills with air to make a great raft, and the kite is perfect for chasing seagulls. On their quest they confront a duck, a rooster, and a penguin to no avail. Where is birdie's mom? Hotdog sneezes, and his sense of smell is restored-he is on the scent! Do's goofy tale reads like P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother? crossed with Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants." The three friends' determination to reunite baby and mother is altruistic, while the humor of the story is irreverent and scatalogical. Kev the cat won't eat birdie; he's more of a "pie and fries and donut kind of guy." All three are appalled when the baby bird needs its diaper changed. Expressive black-and-white cartoon illustrations complement the fast-paced and lighthearted text. Key words and phrases are bolded in a handwritten print typeface. Word bubbles add to the accessibility of the narrative. VERDICT A warmhearted story of friendship, with plenty of cheeky humor.-Sarah Webb, City and Country School Library, NY

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2020
Three animal friends help a bird find its missing mama. With a long body and short legs, dachshund Hotdog awakes one morning to find he has a stuffy nose. Undaunted by his olfactory obstacle, he ventures out to meet friends Lizzie the lizard, who can "blend in with almost everything," and Kevin, a corpulent cat whose owners like to dress him in costume (his disguise du jour is a cow). The trio happens upon an adorable baby bird fallen from its nest and decides to help it find its mother by crossing a river, visiting a farm, and flying a kite. Reading like an updated version of P.D. Eastman's beloved Are You My Mother, the tale sets the animals to asking every bird they encounter (a duck, a rooster, and a penguin) if they are indeed the bird's mother, eliciting giggles from readers who surely know they are not. Do's short chapters and bouncy prose play with type size and color, easing recent graduates of the Eastman classic into independent reading, and McGuiness' cheerfully silly caricatures feel comfortably familiar. The plot is familiar too--it falls to Hotdog to save the day, buoyed by cohorts who play into the comedy--giving transitioning readers a comfortable scaffold. This is the first in a proposed series; sequel Party Time! publishes simultaneously. Transitioning independent readers looking for a funny, fast read need look no further. (Fantasy. 7-9)

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April 1, 2020
Grades 1-3 In a series opener largely built on surreal twists, canine narrator Hotdog introduces himself and two equally clueless buddies, Lizzie, a chameleon, and Kevin, a rotund cat dressed in a cow costume. He then goes on to describe the trio's strenuous efforts to reunite Winston, a fallen nestling of unknown sort, with its mom?who turns out to be not a duck, nor a karate-chopping rooster, nor one of a troupe of camera-wielding penguins. Sharing space with short lines of well-leaded print laced with bolded words and phrases, the two-tone illustrations fill all or most of every page with scenes of pop-eyed panic as the would-be rescuers struggle to cope with challenges ranging from infiltrating a farm (suddenly that cow costume comes in handy) to changing a diaper. Reunited in the end with her errant offspring, Winston's grateful mom throws a grand party . . . with cake! I can't wait, Hotdog pants, for our next adventure! Beginning readers with a taste for antic misadventure will feel likewise.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)