Kirkus Reviews QR Code
LOST by Paul Brett Johnson

LOST

by Paul Brett Johnson & Celeste Lewis & illustrated by Paul Brett Johnson

Pub Date: March 1st, 1996
ISBN: 0-531-09501-0
Publisher: Orchard

The compelling true story of a beloved beagle named Flag, lost on a family camping trip in the desert of Arizona's Tonto National Forest and then, against all odds, found. The rescue efforts of Flag's owner, a girl who narrates, make up most of the story, from her progress from posters (`` `REWARD: $8.48.' That's how much I had in my piggy bank''), to hearing about a dog who turns out not to be Flag, to the longed-for reunion when an old prospector fetches the now skin-and-bones Flag home. For Lewis's first book, co-author Johnson (Frank Fister's Hidden Talent, 1994, etc.) sensitively positions full-color acrylic paintings of Flag in the desert alone opposite colored pencil drawings of the search for Flag by the narrator and her father. Flag survives the threat of cougars and coyotes, snakes, and cactus spines; in two of the most affecting paintings, he encounters the ashes of his family's campfire ring and then howls his loneliness to the hard-starred desert night. The presentation of the harsh beauty of the desert as well as a cathartic, unanticipated reversal of tragedy result in a book that is both visually and emotionally stunning. (Picture book. 4-7)