Little Dog, Lost

It's the first Poetry Friday since my blogging hiatus, and I am so excited to tell you about this lovely novel in verse, Little Dog, Lost by Marion Dane Bauer. Her book, On My Honor won the Newberry Honor Award. If you haven't read that one, you really should. Marion's new book is illustrated by Jennifer A. Bell. Jennifer's soft charcoal/pencil drawings (at least I think that's what they are, not being an artist) throughout the book capture the heart of the story. You can see by the cover that this dog has character.

Click this link, right here, and buy yourself a copy. You really must read it. You won't be sorry.

It's the story of a lost dog...

Little black dog with brown paws
and a brown mask
and a sweet ruffle of brown fur on her bum
just beneath her black whip of a tail.
Satiny coat.
Ears like airplane wings
that drop
just at the tips.


a boy whose mother refuses to let him have a dog...

Mark had wanted a dog
for as long as he could remember.
He had asked for a dog.
He had begged for a dog.
He had pleaded and prayed and whined for a dog.
Once he'd even tried barking for a dog.
All to no avail.

and a scary old caretaker who lives alone in the town mansion...

Charles Larue was a small man,
no one to be afraid of,
really.
Unless you were afraid
of the great bush of his white eyebrows
or the great beak of his nose.
But to be afraid of those,
you had to ignore
the sweet, sad eyes
between eyebrows and nose,
eyes as blue as a Caribbean sea.
And you had to forget
the way Charles Larue walked
when he emerged from the house,
hands thrust deep into his pockets,
head bowed
as though against a bitter wind
even on the sunniest summer day.
An you had to pretend you didn't ntice
the shy way he glance up
and then away again
when anyone came near.

Just tell me you're not dying to know what happens!

A beautiful book, full of surprises right up to the very end.

Betsy hosts the round up today at I Think in Poems.