This Old Dog

June 29, 2020
The titular pooch, gray and shaggy with small, friendly eyes, has reached an advanced age: “Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Old dog’s glad to see a new day,” writes Brockenbrough (Bigfoot Wants a Little Brother). But life has changed a lot since the canine’s people became parents: “The speed of life since the girl was born is fast fast fast, and old dog likes to take things slow.” His preoccupied owners lead him on walks that don’t accommodate his aches or his need to savor the day; he yearns for “a friend who looks at grass and sniffs and says, Let’s roll in this.” Alborozo (The Mouse and the Moon), working in fine-lined, warm-toned watercolor and ink, devotes an entire wordless spread to the dog standing in the garden alone, sad: “His heart thumps. His tail does not.” Then the girl starts walking and everything changes: she becomes the dog’s greatest devotee, and even loves rolling down a hill as much as he does. The authors can’t turn back the years for their senior hero, but they achieve something almost as good: they leave readers believing that the best is yet to come. Ages 4–7. Author’s agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary.

Starred review from August 1, 2020
Preschool-G *Starred Review* In this lovely celebration of toddler-dog love, a scraggly old dog?whose age is really emphasized through references to sore hips, knees, and back?feels left out when a baby comes into the household. Because of the new family member, everything speeds up, leaving the old dog behind. He dreams of finding someone who wants to take long, slow walks with him, and when the baby learns to walk, he finally gets that friend. Throughout, the refrain of thump-thump is used to refer to the dog's tail, his beating heart, and then the toddler's steps. Alborozo's sketchy pen drawings, enriched by layers of watercolor, have a midcentury children's-book look to them, underscoring Brockenbrough's nostalgic, wistful tone, which, coupled with the dog's age, gives this book the power to console a child who may have lost their own furry friend. Warning: if you read this story with that notion in mind, it may be nearly impossible to keep from sobbing out loud at the book's somewhat ambiguous end sequence, in which the toddler and the dog have a perfect day exploring grass and leaves and rocks, followed by a night where they meet in a dream. However you read it, prepare for an uplifting emotional punch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

August 15, 2020
Don't let the title fool you: The dog does not die. The title introduces the protagonist simply as "old dog," a gray and shaggy old mutt whose "bones are sore" but whose "heart is strong." Brockenbrough's measured text emulates his pace, extending standing, yawning, stretching, eating, drinking, and assisting with "clean up" into separate, deliberate steps. But even though old dog is slow, "the speed of life since the girl was born is fast fast fast." He endures much-too-quick walks that make him limp and dreams of a friend who'll play with him. In one heart-rending spread, old dog stands alone in the garden next to a blue ball nobody has thrown for him: "His heart thumps. His tail does not." But when that baby girl (White, like her parents) begins to toddle--"all the way to him"--it's clear he's found his friend, someone who "stops to smell the grass" and who knows the importance of "a just-right rock." Alborozo's delicately lined cartoons invest old dog with enormous personality, the blur of his tail thumping the only fast thing about him. His postures as he stretches and slurps, dolefully stands, and "drifts to sleep in a stripe of sun" are perfectly doggish. Brockenbrough likewise captures his essence in her meticulously trimmed text. Old dog is never named, and the consistent omission of an article before "old dog" is both universalizing and sweetly particular. As comfortable as an old dog snoring. (Picture book. 4-8)

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