MAGGI AND MILO MAKE NEW FRIENDS

In their second outing, Maggi and her huge dog, Milo, visit a park where they make three new friends.

Maggi, a white girl with glasses and cowgirl boots, is taken to the park by her mother, who wants her daughter to make some friends other than her dog. The small park doesn’t allow dogs inside, so the mom sits outside on a bench next to Milo. Maggi meets a Latino boy named Antonio Carlos Enrique III (Ace for short), a redheaded white girl in a tutu named Sarah, and a black girl named Sydney, who (inexplicably) calls herself Amelia Earhart. They play together for a while and then decide to walk the dog. Maggi requests seven items (ranging from dandelions to sparkly rocks to acorns) to be collected from around the park as payment for dog-walking privileges. The children take turns walking Milo (outside the park gate), and the group then uses the collected natural items in further play, with two of the friends kindly teaching Maggi how to make something new. The morally questionable notion of charging newly acquired friends for the privilege of walking the dog is never addressed. While the plot is rather ho-hum, the story is told in an energetic, clever tone, and the digitally produced illustrations have a fluid appeal, with scratchy ink outlines and a loose, breezy style that lends immediacy to the overall effort. The cast of cute kids illustrated with large heads and skinny appendages is clearly positioned for more entries in the series.

Perhaps next time Maggi and Milo will learn about the golden rule