How Dog Began

Baynes's primitive black-and-white illustrationsin the style of prehistoric cave drawingsare simple and evocative. However, the story of the way in which wild wolves evolved as ancestors of today's domesticated dogs is a little far-reaching: wolves forage at the campfires of early man, hoping for scraps; a tribe's children find an orphaned cub and tame it; the grown wolf performs heroic feats, protecting and aiding the tribe with fierce loyalty. For all his feats, the tribe makes him a god, but he hangs his head and turns around, embarrassed by the honor. And so, they turn the word god around and call the wolf ""Dog.'' This is written in a straight narrative that seems almost drily factual; it doesn't match the mythic or oral tradition of storytelling suggested by the drawings. Ages 5-9. (March)