MCDUFF MOVES IN
by Rosemary Wells & illustrated by Susan Jeffers
A little white dog that nobody wants tumbles off the dogcatcher's truck and into the home of Lucy and Fred in a story from Wells (Bunny Cakes, p. 67, etc.) that recalls a time when compassion wasn't in such short supply. After his fall from the truck, the little white dog goes from house to house, barking at doors and garnering chilly responses from growling dogs and hissing cats. A young couple in pajamas, robes, and slippers, rousted from their beds, invite the bedraggled dog into their home to feed and bathe, and then set out for the pound. Before they've gone far, they admit to each other that they don't want to take the dog back. A late-night feast of McDuff's Melt In Your Mouth Shortbread Biscuits gives the dog his new name: McDuff. Cars, appliances, and textile prints set this several decades ago; Jeffers works in a painterly style that complements the unadorned text: ``He needed something to eat. He needed a warm place to sleep. So he went looking.'' In atmosphere and outlook, this book—the first in a series—is a kindred spirit of Marjorie Flack's Angus stories from the 1940s. (Picture book. 2-5)