McDuff Moves In - Hardcover

Wells, Rosemary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786803185 ISBN 13: 9780786803187

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion, 1999

Synopsis

A little gray dog that nobody seems to want finds just the right home--and a name.

About this title

From 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) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Ages 3^-5. A little dog jumps out of the dogcatcher's truck one night and goes looking for a home. At the first house, another dog barks at him. At the second, a cat hisses. But at the third house, a young couple invite him in to share their sausages and rice pudding and to have a bath. Though they start to drive him to the pound, they change their minds and take him back home to stay. The paintings create a 1930s setting full of innocence and charmwas there a time and place when people would set out for the dog pound at night wearing their pajamas and robes? Perhaps only the book's dreamlike quality could make this seem natural. With the many night scenes, the illustrations use a rather muted palette and simple lines, which contributes to the book's quiet tone. 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. Carolyn Phelan

About this edition

• Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0786803185
• ISBN 13: 9780786803187
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32