Meet Matt and Roxy is a stylish photo-essay documenting a dog and her boy. It is summer and the photogenic blond preschooler Matt and equally camera-friendly bull terrier Roxy play. They ride on a miniature train, play with bubbles, explore the beach, share an ice-cream, and dress up. The images are full of action, character, and affection. Ever-patient Roxy in a bridal veil is particularly fetching. The text, told in Roxy’s voice, is board-book simple. “When it’s hot outside, we stay cool in the pool.” What gives the book its particular style is the use of hand-coloured photos. For adults this technique holds a multitude of associations. The muted tones, the soft blush of pink across a child’s cheek, create the look of a studio portrait from the fifties – innocence and security. The objects around Matt and Roxy, a Radio Flyer wagon, a tire swing, Matt’s playsuit, contribute to this nostalgic setting. Echoes of William Wegman’s sly portraits of his weirmaraners in human poses give a slightly ominious, or at any rate off-centre, cast to this world for the adult viewer. The child reader, free of these associations, is likely simply to enjoy a world where there are no adults and where, at day’s end you get to share your bath with your dog. The book does end with bath and bed, but apart from that the story is relatively shapeless. This lack of structure prevents Meet Matt and Roxy from being totally satisfying. Our personal photo albums are fascinating because they contain the underlying shape of our lives and our family histories, but the photo album of a stranger, even a stranger as charming as Roxy, needs a bit more story.