Honey & Leon Take the High Road

February 1, 2019
Two New York City dogs shadow their dads on another trip.Big, fluffy Honey and small, chipper Leon protect their dads pretty handily at home in the East Village. When they hear the all-too-familiar sound of squeaking luggage wheels, they spring into action. Honey creates a distraction (by, um, piddling inside), while Leon checks the tickets online. Their dads are flying to London. The dogs break out their disguises and tail their dads across the pond. (The avuncular-bordering-on-patronizing narrator informs readers that the dads are on to their dogs' shenanigans but indulge the canine need to protect their humans.) From London to Edinburgh to the island of Barra, Honey and Leon doggedly protect their dads from nonvegan soup and other hazards. There, Honey is distracted by a lovely collie named Coll, and so it falls to Leon to single-pawedly save everyone in the dense Scottish fog by barking in a brogue as he follows the scent of gluten-free pastry. The family wings it home, and the pups barely make it in time to greet their dads as if the pooches had never left the city. Cumming and Shaffer team up again to tell nearly the same story as The Adventures of Honey & Leon (2017). This is as charming and self-indulgent, but it offers little new aside from the setting (Scotsman Cumming's home).Déjà vu aside, it's a pleasant-enough outing. (Picture book. 3-8)

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May 17, 2019

PreS-Gr 1-This sequel to The Adventures of Honey and Leon takes an already thin premise and stretches it to the breaking point. When titular dogs Honey and Leon discover that their human "dads" are about to set off on another trip, they buy plane tickets, put on disguises, and shadow the men as they travel by plane, train, and boat to a remote island for a family visit. It is quickly revealed that the dads are aware of the dogs' subterfuge, and the pups have a great time "protecting" their owners, with Honey finding time for a romantic fling and Leon saving the day in a fog. The text is trite, the plot is preposterous, and the jokes and much of the content are clearly winks to the adult audience. The illustrations are appealing, with a long-armed flowing look reminiscent of Ludwig Bemelmans's work. Shaffer does a wonderful job with both point of view and variations of layout, including one page with three stacked images of the protagonists on a boat, a train, and a plane. Unfortunately, the art can't save the text, which includes the dogs dramatically saving their vegan dad from being served soup with ham in it, and a plot point that turns on Leon smelling gluten-free bagels. VERDICT This work of whimsy is clearly a celebrity vehicle, and even as a sequel, it falls flat. Libraries where the first book is popular may want to consider this one. Everyone else can pass on this sub-par sequel.-Amy Lilien-Harper, Wilton Library, CT

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