Lost - Hardcover

Johnson, Paul Brett; Lewis, Celeste

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0531088510 ISBN 13: 9780531088517

Publisher: Orchard Books

Synopsis

During a desert camping trip, Flag, the family beagle, runs off in pursuit of a wild rabbit and finds himself lost amid the perils of the wilderness for twenty-nine days before being reunited with his young owner.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

At the opposite end of the spectrum from Lost Cat (reviewed above), this picture book, based on first-time author Lewis's experiences, unflinchingly examines the terrors and traumas that ensue when a pet is lost. While camping in the Arizona desert, a girl and her father realize their beagle, Flag, has vanished. For a month afterward, the girl follows a familiar course: putting up reward posters, enduring the frustration of false leads, experiencing the elation and despair of a mistaken find. She rejects gentle pleas from adults to accept the tragedy. Interspersed with this account is the wordless story of the dog's survival: while sepia-toned art on right-hand pages focuses on the narrator in her sadness, full-color pictures on the left show the ever more emaciated Flag howling piteously at night, searching for water, scared by wild animals. At times the two stories intersect (as when cactus needles pierce Flag's body while the girl gazes at a cactus plant on the school window sill); sometimes they narrowly miss each other. The juxtaposition creates almost unbearable tension-indeed, while some children will be on the edge of their seats with the suspense, many may find the book simply harrowing. Against the odds, girl and dog are reunited in a cathartic ending that, like the rest of this dramatic story, rings true in its fullness of feeling. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

The compelling true story of a beloved beagle named Flag, lost on a family camping trip in the desert of Arizona's Tonto National Forest and then, against all odds, found. The rescue efforts of Flag's owner, a girl who narrates, make up most of the story, from her progress from posters (`` `REWARD: $8.48.' That's how much I had in my piggy bank''), to hearing about a dog who turns out not to be Flag, to the longed-for reunion when an old prospector fetches the now skin-and-bones Flag home. For Lewis's first book, co-author Johnson (Frank Fister's Hidden Talent, 1994, etc.) sensitively positions full-color acrylic paintings of Flag in the desert alone opposite colored pencil drawings of the search for Flag by the narrator and her father. Flag survives the threat of cougars and coyotes, snakes, and cactus spines; in two of the most affecting paintings, he encounters the ashes of his family's campfire ring and then howls his loneliness to the hard-starred desert night. The presentation of the harsh beauty of the desert as well as a cathartic, unanticipated reversal of tragedy result in a book that is both visually and emotionally stunning. (Picture book. 4-7) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• ISBN 10: 0531088510
• ISBN 13: 9780531088517
• Binding: Hardcover