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The Little Blue Doggy

by Lionel Daunais; Marie Lafrance, illus.

This stuffed little doggy has a very hard time of it. He is a “loosely-knit” dog with a red rag tail, and when his unsympathetic parents go on an afternoon’s outing, they leave him locked in the bathroom closet, where he is eaten up by mites.

In the original song by the late Canadian singer and songwriter Lionel Daunais, the story ends with the parents discovering that the only remnant of their offspring is a small tail, soggy with tears. However, in the book version (a translation of the original 2005 French edition), illustrator Marie Lafrance – after a blank page presumably commemorating the doggy’s fate – shows mother dog knitting up a new blue doggy.

As nonsense verse, this is fine. However, when each stanza is given a double-page illustration, implying an actual story, the little blue doggy’s fate starts to feel too dark and pointless. In the surrealistic images, gigantic mites twirl strands of Doggy’s wool like spaghetti, while his parents amuse themselves by viewing caged humans in the park. Other picture books of a blackly humourous bent – such as those by writer/illustrator Anthony Browne ­– employ similarly bizarre scenes, but the off-kilter details serve a clear purpose. They don’t here.

The lesson may simply be that song lyrics do not necessarily work as a standalone poem; the CD that accompanies this book is probably better enjoyed by itself.

 

Reviewer: Gwyneth Evans

Publisher: The Secret Mountain

DETAILS

Price: $22.95

Page Count: 40 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 978-2-92316-364-2

Released: Oct.

Issue Date: 2010-9

Categories: Picture Books

Age Range: 5-7