Copyright Date:
2019
Edition Date:
2019
Release Date:
10/01/19
Illustrator:
Jeffers, Susan,
Pages:
1 volume (unpaged)
ISBN:
0-940719-42-8
ISBN 13:
978-0-940719-42-2
Dewey:
E
LCCN:
96038221
Dimensions:
25 cm.
Language:
English
Reviews:
School Library Journal Starred Review
PreS-Gr 2--A personable pup is rejected at several doors before finding a loving home, complete with an herbal bath and vanilla rice pudding. (May)
Horn Book
Readers are introduced to McDuff as he escapes from a dogcatcher's truck and sets out to find a home. Jeffers's ability to express a thousand words and emotions with a pair of flattened dog ears gives McDuff life and character, and the illustrations combine her realistic depictions of flora and fauna with a sleekly forties setting.
Kirkus Reviews
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)"
Word Count:
421
Reading Level:
2.3
Interest Level:
P-2
Accelerated Reader:
reading level: 2.3
/ points: 0.5
/ quiz: 17295
/ grade: Lower Grades
Reading Counts!:
reading level:2.2 /
points:1.0 /
quiz:Q07511
Lexile:
450L
"A homeless unloved pup becomes one lucky dog in this tender picture book. . ." --starred Publishers Weekly Review The Gryphon Press is delighted to bring this classic children's picture back into print for a new generation of children. McDuff Moves In has been loved for its heartwarming and lively story and its magical recreation of a simpler era. Readers have commented that they loved reading McDuff's story to their children, and, in due course, to their grandchildren, reading the book over and over, until, as one reader wrote, the "original copy was worn to shreds." "This collaboration by Wells and Jeffers is as sweet, substantial, and comforting as that bowl of rice pudding and will suit the many children who like stories with simple words, clear story lines, and happily-ever-after endings. " - Booklist No one wanted the nameless little dog wandering the streets looking unsuccessfully for food and shelter until kindhearted Fred and Lucy, a young couple, take him inside. After they feed him rice pudding and bathe him, they realize that they cannot bear to return him to the pound. Newly adopted, McDuff-named that night for their favorite shortbread biscuit-is last seen happily asleep on his back on a pillow next to Fred and Lucy's bed. Wells knows just the right words to describe McDuff's emotions in ways that little readers will identify with and understand. She describes his joy in being accepted with these words: ''No one had ever asked him to come in. Everyone had always told him to go away.'' Jeffers's illustrations brilliantly capture a bygone art deco America in Lucy and Fred's cozy home, a virtual-reality nostalgia unfaded. Dog lovers everywhere will recognize the very specific details that bring McDuff to life, from the familiar lift of a paw in the rain to the frightened eyes peeking out over the car dashboard.