My Dog, Trip

Like Judith Hendershot's In Coal Country, Ray's long picture book deals sensitively with miners and their families; this time the narration is in a thick West Virginia hill-country dialect. Allie's father finds an orphaned dog that Allie names ""Trip for his trippin'-up feet.'' When the dog disappears, she is inconsolable. She says, ``When I tell Gramma what the trouble be, she say, `Frettin' won't do no good, darlin'. You got to try to take your mind off Trip.' But I can't. I get to cryin' for missin' him so much.'' After some false starts, Allie finally finds Trip at a nearby home where another little girl has made Trip her own. Allie sympathizes and offers to let the girl visit Trip. She returns home saying, ``I hold so tight to Trip. I don't never want to let him go.'' The emotional story is nicely supported by Ray's evocative black-and-white pencil drawings. Ages 7-11. (October)