SMALL BROWN DOG’S BAD REMEMBERING DAY

Poster puppy for cluelessness, a small dog with a white patch on one eye wakes up one morning dismayed to discover his name, collar, and entire life misplaced. Off he charges on a true journey of self-discovery. Though a series of canine acquaintances cumulatively fill in some of the gaps—“ ‘You are a small brown dog with a pink nose who likes splashing in puddles’ ”—his name remains a mystery. Aside from frequent appearances by a tiny blue mouse, it's a dog’s world in Nascimbeni’s (What If?, 1999, etc.) loopy, spacious cartoons, composed along canted planes using just a few vigorously brushed colors and the occasional bit of patterned material or newsprint. With each encounter, Small Brown Dog fills out as a character for readers as well as himself, and by the time he’s tracked down both collar and name (“ ‘Patch!’ ”), he will seem as familiar as any real pet. He’s not the only forgetful character in a children’s book, but he is the most engagingly doggy one, and his plight may make children—not to mention parents—feel better about their own “senior moments.” (Picture book. 6-8)