Review by Booklist Review
Rosie, a dog with a sensitive nose, has nothing to do all day while her human family works at their shop, making and selling delicious-smelling chocolate truffles, which dogs cannot eat. One day, Rosie hops on a bicycle and pedals away, looking for a job . . . or an adventure. In the forest, she finds a man who seeks a truffle-sniffing hound to replace the pig that he fired for devouring the fungi instead of just pointing them out. With her powerful sniffer, Rosie's a natural. But soon, the lonely dog returns home and puts her new skill to use, gathering the epicurean fungi in the surrounding forest. Now her family's shop sells truffles of both the chocolate and fungus varieties. Two recipes are appended. Hartland, whose picture books include How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum (2011) and Bon Appétit! (2012), offers an original, somewhat zany story and illustrates it with gouache paintings that are freewheeling, buoyant, and energetic. Kids intrigued by the notion of truffle-hunting dogs may also enjoy Wendy and Harry Devlin's The Trouble with Henriette!
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In 2005, Hartland introduced Clementine, a poodle who wanted more out of life. Now, there's lanky brown Rosie, who walks on her hind legs and whose loving interracial human family is completely preoccupied making chocolate truffles, which she can't even eat, to sell in their seaside shop. So Rosie hops on a bike (a recurring and delightfully silly image) and runs away to the city, where employment misfires abound. Happily, her keen sense of smell earns her a job in the country hunting truffles: "not the chocolate kind! They are hard-to-find fungi--like mushrooms," coveted by chefs, with a "divine" smell that's "earthy and nutty and musty and unique." Rosie's an instant success, but home calls; to the delight of her entrepreneurial family, her newly sensitized nose finds truffles right in their backyard, doubling their shop's wares. The brisk narration and colorful gouache paintings have plenty of cheek--as befits the indomitable, improbable protagonist--and the pages fly by, propelled by characters who seem always to be in motion. Like truffles (both kinds), there's plenty to savor. Ages 4--8. Agent: Brenda Bowen, the Book Group. (Sept.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2--Rosie is a self-possessed poodle who walks upright, rides a bike, and has such a keen sense of smell she can "smell the stale breath of a sleeping mole" deep underground. Unable to help her human family at their chocolate truffle shop (where the chocolate is, of course, poisonous to dogs), Rosie runs away to the city to seek employment. Stints as a museum guard dog, a show dog, and a guide dog don't work out, but she finds her calling when she responds to an ad for a job as a truffle hound. She becomes an expert but misses her family and returns home where, to her surprise, the smell of truffles (the fungi kind) is in the air. Reunited, Rosie's family now happily sells both kinds of truffles. Painted in gouache with lots of greens and peachy pinks, the naive illustrations are cheerfully comic and packed with dainty details to explore. They pair perfectly with the quirky, lighthearted text. A recipe for each type of truffle is included. VERDICT There is plenty to entertain young listeners and viewers in the pages of this lark of a picture book; not an essential purchase, but a charming one.--Jan Aldrich Solow, formerly Fairfax County P.S., VA
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The nose knows what it knows. Rosie is a cute brown poodle with very acute olfactory powers. She can smell anything--food or otherwise--even from great distances. She likes to surround herself with delicious aromas--easy enough, given that her humans make chocolate truffles to sell in their shop. Problem is…chocolate's poisonous for dogs, so Rosie can't eat any. She runs away to the city and basks in delicious fragrances. What she needs is a job so she can use her skills to their optimum advantage. Rosie lands various posts, but nothing is quite right until she finds one for which her nose is tailor-made…as a truffle hunter--the expensive, fungi kind. Here's where readers discover that there are two kinds of truffles; that only dogs and pigs are suited to this work (though pigs also eat them!); and that a dog's sense of smell is far keener than a human's. Despite her success, Rosie misses her family and returns home, where her trusty nose discovers a wonderful underground surprise. Guess what else Rosie's family will now sell in their shop? This cute but thin story about putting one's talents to good use and using them to help others should entertain and empower; kids and adults will learn something. Rosie's a cheery protagonist, and the lively illustrations nicely drive the text. Rosie's family is an interracial one. Simple truffle recipes (one chocolate, one fungi) conclude the book. (This book was reviewed digitally.) All's well that smells well. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
