BRADFORD'S WALK

In an illustrated poetic narrative for all ages, a charismatic hound takes stock of his domain as he romps through his daily constitutional.

The human, unnamed narrator of this waggish tale is a former Connecticut native who’s recently traveled from a city, where he has an apartment, to visit his rural home. There, he’s roused from bed in the early morning by the nuzzling muzzle and insistent barks of Bradford, “a dog / in a very plain wrapper” who lives with the narrator’s mother. Bradford bounds off, leading the narrator to the shore of Long Island Sound. Along the rambling path to the water, the dog merrily lifts his leg to leave “his John Hancock / in five hundred places,” “hoovers up smells,” and ebulliently faces off with passing cars and other dogs “at the ends of their ropes.” The good-natured Bradford is equally at home racing along the sandy shore and squeezing through the gates of a seaside mansion to roll in its lush forbidden grass. Meanwhile, his human companion finds himself transported back to his youth, marveling at the restoration of an old “haunted” house and signaling to passing truckers who reward him with a booming honk of the horn. In unpretentious verse, O’Neill offers an idyllic odyssey in which a grown-up city dweller returns to the joys of childhood with a dog as his guide. Although the book is subtitled A Bit of Doggerel, its verse is as energetic as Bradford himself, with an irregular meter and unpredictable rhyme scheme that effectively stave off monotony. The tone is light and droll, and the narrative is peppered with canny imagery, including a comparison of jumping toy poodles to “popcorn popping” and a description of Bradford after the walk, flopping down exhausted “like a drunken, first mate.” Quadland’s watercolor illustrations are beautifully detailed and perfectly evoke the bucolic setting and Bradford’s adorable persona.  

A charming depiction of simple pleasures.