Puppy Bus

A story that’s got all the markers of a classic anxiety dream becomes an amusing balm for hesitant school-goers in Brockington’s deftly comic picture book. The protagonist, a pink-skinned kid with a round-headed, angsty Peanuts mien, isn’t thrilled about starting at a brand-new school: “The teachers will be different. I’ll have to make all new friends. I won’t even know where the bathroom is.” But these worries end up constituting a massive understatement: having somehow boarded the bus to Leroy’s Puppy School, endearingly goofy cartooning reveals, the child is the only human on the premises (even the principal is a dog). The first class covers rolling over, the lunchroom serves kibble, and the toilet is a fire hydrant. But consoling licks from a canine classmate draws the child into the swing of things, and in short order, fetch, puppy piles, and howling seem like the most natural thing in the world—at least until the second day of school. Ages 4–8. (July)