The+Five-Dog+Night

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2-Elderly Ezra, who lives alone with five dogs, is often visited by his neighbor, Betty. He thinks she's a busybody, but the dogs always welcome her, possibly because she brings them cookies. As winter approaches, the old woman worries about Ezra and takes him a blanket. He has no use for it because the colder it gets, the more dogs he takes to bed with him. Betty checks up on her neighbor one time too many, and he tells her to leave him alone. Come spring, he misses seeing her. He bakes cookies and walks the dogs down the hill only to find that Betty has acquired some dogs of her own and has adopted his trick for keeping warm. The watercolor illustrations give readers comfortable, homey, grandparenty characters and bumbling, cuddly animals. At times Christelow allows the illustrations to tell the story. It's a doggone, good tale that points out if you can't lick 'em, join 'em and that you don't know what you've got until it's gone. Joyce Richards, Prairie Grove Elementary School, AR Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the [|Hardcover] edition.