Solutions for Cold Feet and Other Little Problems

Illustrator Sookocheff makes her authorial debut by examining the travails and rewards of a girl’s relationship with her dog, framed as a series of “solutions.” In the first section, “Solutions for a Missing Shoe,” readers know exactly where the shoe is; a drawing on the left shows the girl’s pup running off with it. “Check in the closet. Look under the bed,” suggest the following pages, but the shoe—chewed to pieces—is eventually found under the table, leading to another suggestion: “Wear a mismatched pair.” The palette is muted and spare—gray-green, yellow-green, and red—and Sookocheff’s cartooning is as loose and breezy as in the Buddy and Earl books. In subsequent sections, the girl’s dog compels her to do things a little differently, to accommodate. Sometimes that means getting wet in the rain; sometimes it means buying a replacement ice cream cone. But when she’s warming up on the sofa after a day in the snow, the “solution for cold feet” is... a dog. Dog lovers of all ages will easily identify with these scenarios, recognizing them as inherent to canine companionship. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)