Dogs' Night

On their annual Dogs' Night, all the dogs depicted in an art gallery leave their paintings to play, but four of them create a sensation by going back into the wrong paintings.

Kindergarten-Grade 2-These are not ordinary pets but dogs that actually live in paintings in an art museum. Once a year, they secretly celebrate "Dogs' Night" and run wild. This year an evening reception at the museum delays their party but compensates by providing leftover food and bubbly for the canines to enjoy. When the clock strikes midnight, four of the tired, giddy animals mistakenly return to the wrong paintings. Only the dogs know the real story, but they have to wait another year to set things right. Happily, their mischief makes the museum famous. The action is fast moving and children will become quickly involved in the humor of the story and the antics of the pups. The illustrations are as comical and whimsical as the tale itself. An addendum identifies the four featured paintings from the National Gallery in London. After reading this lighthearted fantasy, young readers will never again be intimidated by a visit to the museum.
Patricia Mahoney Brown, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, Kenmore, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This lighthearted addition to books about art for children combines art appreciation with a twist. Once a year when the museum is empty, dogs in the paintings have their special night out. They romp around the museum and, just at midnight, jump back into their frames. This year, partygoers had food and fizzy drinks in the gallery and the dogs enjoyed the leftovers. When the revelry was over, four dogs jumped into the wrong pictures. A young girl points out the mistake and everyone is astounded. People line up all year to see the unexplainable. A year passes until the next dog’s night out when, dissatisfied with their new surroundings, the dogs move back to their right places. Hooper’s (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) text is fast and funny, filled with descriptive phrases matched well by the illustrations. Curless, a London political cartoonist, did the initial drawings, but died before he could complete the illustrations; Burgess finished the work in his style. All the dogs pictured are reproduced from paintings in the collection of the National Gallery in London. A picture index of the featured paintings is a useful addition. Text and illustrations combine to make an amusing read and one that will compliment other more serious works about art for children. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Once a year, the dogs leave their poses in famous paintings in the National Gallery in London and run boisterously around the museum. One night, however, they are confounded by people partying in the galllery. When the people leave, the canines feast on table scraps, become sleepy, and hoist themselves into the wrong paintings. The next day, the mistakes are discovered. Experts are stumped, even more so when, a year later, the dogs climb back into their accustomed places. The illustrations combine situational comedy (the dogs scratching, chasing, and skidding down corridors, and humans grotesquely nibbling canapes) with humorous contrasts of the dogs' frantic play in front of still lifes and staid portraits. A section about the paintings at the book's end details the four paintings in which the dogs appeared--among them van Eyck's The Arnolfini Marriage and Seurat's Bathers at Asnieres. This uproarious romp should surprise and delight children with its insight into the role dogs play in art, and will provide an incentive for a visit to a museum. Connie Fletcher