New Yorker artist Harry Bliss (Countdown to Kindergarten) creates a winsome canine hero with whom children can readily identify. Bailey, a cream-colored hound with chocolaty brown spots, can't wait to get to Champlain Elementary School. He brushes his coat 100 times, wagging all the while, then selects a smart red collar to meet the day: "Bailey likes to look cool." As he dashes for the bus, we see that all the other passengers are humans. "Run, Bailey, run!," the schoolchildren shout in speech balloons. Bailey, meanwhile, conveys his needs through his actions. He holds out his bowl to a girl at the drinking fountain (his thought balloon says, "A little help?"), and presents his "big report" on Fala, the Scottie and "first friend" to Franklin D. Roosevelt, using a pointer, photographs and printed words.
Bliss plays up the comical contrast of Bailey staying true to his canine nature within a human construct, and milks the opportunities for humor. When his teacher asks Bailey about his homework, Bliss upends the cliché with a thought balloon image of the pup eating it himself. In art class, the pooch paints with his tail; in music class, he adds his howl to the song "Hound Dog." The author-artist nicely mixes up the flow of full-page images with panel illustrations and silhouette images. He tucks in details that will be fun for youngsters to discover, such as casting the school nurse as a male, and a pedestrian crossing sign picturing a boy, girl and dog. Bliss implies that though Bailey may be different from his classmates, he's having a howling good time. Young readers will, too. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness