DOG VS. STRAWBERRY

A modern—and modernist—take on “The Tortoise and the Hare” that plays out in a living room.

Narrated like a cross between an auto race and a WWE smackdown, this awesomely engaging, giggle-inducing tale from the creators of A Friend Like No Otter (2023) pits a floppy-eared, big-nosed, massively confident-looking pooch against an inscrutable, not to say inanimate, morsel laid on the floor by a brown hand. “Would you like a strawberry?” Dog’s owner asks. Oh, the race is on. With frenzied commentary from an unseen narrator—“Rounding the lamp, it’s Dog, spinning out of the turn, spinning still, and yes! Chasing her own tail!”—the dog zooms madly about the room, trashing the furnishings, wreaking domestic havoc, and, after a brief snooze, leaping over a chair to send pillows flying. Meanwhile the ripe, red contender is proving that while it can’t run, it can hide (under a torn-off green leaf)…long enough to bring the noisy rampage to a rousing, breathless climax and a sudden, squishy end. Aesop would doubtless be peeved; readers will be hard pressed to pick a contestant to root for, but they’ll enjoy every moment of this romp.

Berry delightful.