LUCKY BOY

Newcomer Boase offers a sweet tale of a dog that finds a loving home with a lonely older man who has recently lost his wife. At first the dog is just called Boy, a forlorn and unwanted dog who has to live in the backyard while his busy owners go about their business. He tunnels under the fence and into the neighbor’s garden (and straight into the man’s lonely heart), finding warmth and companionship. The man gives the dog his first bath, changing his fur color from brown to white and his name from Boy to Lucky Boy. (The neighbors haven’t bothered to look for their brown dog, and don’t even recognize the white dog as theirs when they see him.) The story is rather long and the characters’ emotions are told rather than shown, but the genuine need and love between the widower and the dog are touching nonetheless. Boase’s soft-focus pencil illustrations are reproduced in brown with matching brown type, with a wide variation in illustration size and perspective. No new ground is covered here; just a quiet, gentle story for one-on-one sharing, especially in families with lucky dogs of their own. (Picture book. 4-8)