ALA Booklist (Mon Dec 09 00:00:00 CST 2024)

It's June in Brooklyn, and the most happening place in the neighborhood is the Cheshire Street dog park. There's the 50-pound puppy, Cup-Cup, whose owner, Kaleb, is quietly fighting with his best friend, Ezra, who worries about everything, including the possibility of losing his chow chow, Mr. Cashmere. Newcomer Jilly is adjusting to life with her aunt's grumpy terriers, while Mei-Alice is trying to retain her confidence without alienating her classmates d trying to keep her tripod corgi mix from eating forbidden foods. One fateful weekend sees their lives overlap in unexpected and remarkable ways, leaving them all changed forever. The clever concept works wonderfully, shifting narrative duties between pets and people with easy and compassionate humor. Refreshingly, not all conflicts are perfectly resolved, but every character lands in a better place than they were at the beginning. There are laughs aplenty (the terrible terriers are a riot), heaps of heartfelt conversations, and possibly more dog barf than in any book before now. An eminently enjoyable celebration of canine companions and their incredible impact on our lives.

Kirkus Reviews

Every dog lover thinks their dog is the best in the universe, writes Jenkins in this cozy neighborhood tale…and they're all correctDisplaying sharp insight into how both pets and middle schoolers see the world, the author spins interwoven storylines around regular visitors to a Brooklyn dog run. In this safe social space, friendship crises, beloved companions lost and found, tempests emotional and digestive, and new family arrangements play out in benign ways over the course of one June weekend. Narrated in third person, the book follows a bevy of canine and human characters, giving readers true-to-life glimpses of both viewpoints. The canine cast outnumbers the racially diverse human one and is large enough to necessitate an occasional flip back to Preitano's opening gallery for a refresher. Still, in both the narrative and in the informal ink-and-wash scenes, generously distributed throughout, the dogs-from 50-pound puppy Cup-Cup to three-legged, "corgi adjacent" Panda-are as individualized in looks and temperament as their two-legged devotees. Free of tragedy if not occasional tears, guilty secrets, and moments of distress, this buoyant outing delivers nicely on a reassuring authorial promise at the outset that things will turn out well. Final art not seen.A real good, feel-good, doggy delight.(Fiction. 9-11)

School Library Journal (Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2024)

Gr 3–6— Dog-loving kiddos will enjoy this well-constructed book with shifting narrators about a weekend in June that changes its characters' lives. Black-and-white illustrations float through the pages, pleasantly cartoonish with thick lines and sweet portrayals of all the different dogs featured in the story. All the main characters (mostly sixth graders at MS 123 in Brooklyn, several different dogs, and a couple of adults) get their chance to share their side of a story about what happens during one weekend in their neighborhood dog park. The characters read like real kids with real emotions, such as Ezra who is sometimes overwhelmed with worry, or Mei-Alice who doesn't feel she can talk about her nervousness over singing in the school musical. The core conflict is resolved, but all the children's and adults' problems are not perfectly fixed at the end of the book, and that's okay; at this stage of reading, readers won't need to have everything neatly tied up with a bow. At just over 200 pages, the length is great for late-elementary or middle school readers, though the vocabulary at times might be a stretch. VERDICT A sweet story for dogs who love to be read to and the middle schoolers who love them.— Jessica Durham