FINDING SUSIE

The retired Supreme Court justice recounts her experiences with childhood pets in this overlong story that will not hold the interest of most children. Young Sandra is an only child living on a Southwestern ranch with her parents and their ranch hands. Though Sandra has her own horse, she wants a smaller pet that she can care for and play with. Over a two-year time frame, she cycles through various wild animals that she tries to keep as pets (a tortoise, a cottontail rabbit, a young coyote and a baby bobcat), reluctantly letting her acquisitions return to the wild as each proves to be an unsuitable pet. A local storeowner finally gives Sandra a stray dog named Susie, who satisfies the child’s longing for a cuddly companion. The story is written in a detached, old-fashioned style, with little emotion—or even motion itself—conveyed in either the text or Pohrt’s illustrations. Life on a cattle ranch in the Depression must have been adventurous, but this interpretation lacks much excitement or novelty. (Picture book. 4-8)