cover image Where's Pup?

Where's Pup?

Dayle Ann Dodds. Dial Books, $12.99 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-8037-2744-1

In Where's Pup? by Dayle Ann Dodds, illus. by Pierre Pratt, a clown's search for his pet in and around the Big Top offers a lesson in vowels via rhyming couplets. In response to the titular question, a magician responds, ""Don't know./ Go ask Jo./ She's feeding Mo."" Readers discover in the next spread that Mo is a monkey, and Jo doesn't know Pup's whereabouts, either. (""Can't say./ Go ask Ray./ He's washing Kay,"" an elephant.) A final foldout page that more than doubles the paper-over-board book in height reveals Pup at the top of a human pyramid in the center ring. Saturated golds, reds and royal blues help to evoke the magic of the circus.