FIRST DOG

Riding the wave of presidential-pooch enthusiasm comes the season’s second picture book on the subject. An appealingly scruffy, homeless black mutt scans the newspaper, seeing articles on housing woes and global opportunities, and resolves to try his luck elsewhere. So off he treks by motorcycle, boat and ox-cart to such varied locales as Newfoundland, France, Croatia, Australia, South Africa and Peru, eventually circumnavigating the globe and fetching right back up in the East Coast city he started from. There he reads another newspaper headline—“First Family Looks for Dog”—and trots on over to the White House: “Daddy, Daddy, can we keep him?” ask two little-girl pairs of feet. The inevitable presidential answer: “YES, WE CAN!” Dog’s quest is a little muzzy on the logic: He’s off to find the “perfect place to live,” but at each stop he compares himself to a local breed of dog and decides it’s not for him, only occasionally making reference to housing. Not quite as ephemeral as the Feiffers’ Which Puppy?, though—at least readers will get some geography. (Picture book. 5-8)