ZOOMER

Mom’s away, but twins Hooper and Cooper diligently get ready for school anyway; Zoomer, however, energetically avoids the task despite his ineffectual dad’s best efforts. This family of dogs lives in a large Victorian house, the puppies attend school and they behave in mostly human fashion. Zoomer engages in imaginative play that gradually becomes more real, moving from wearing a superhero costume to sailing a pirate ship to flying a rocket with two pelican pals. It’s not quite clear where Zoomer is getting these superpowers or why, but he’s having lots of fun while his tattling, better-behaved brothers proceed in orderly fashion. Though the plot is downright silly, the storytelling is flat and it’s sometimes hard to distinguish among the four dogs, Zoomer has a certain zest about him. Young’s busy, bright paintings in his first picture book show that he can illustrate wildly improbable animal antics in a humorous and more-or-less believable way. (Picture book. 4-7)