The smell of wet dog And other dog poems and drawings

In this collection of 27 poems, Saltzberg (A Delicious Story) employs both canine and human perspectives to explore the age-old cross-species connection--a relationship characterized by a blend of fondness, bewilderment, and, as the evocative title suggests, effluvia. In "Who," a dog playfully queries, "Who sleeps on your bed/ like a huge armadillo?/ Who steals all the covers?/ Who drools on your pillow?" A few pages later, "Bed" offers a brief glimpse of a human counterpart's view of bedtime: "My dog is very happy/ snoozing on my bed./ Sometimes I am her pillow/ when she sleeps on my head." While some of the rhymes feel more perfunctory than polished, the poems emanate from a place of keen adoration and observation. And each of the accompanying digital illustrations is spot-on, with line drawings used for humans, whose skin tone reflects the white of the page, and textured, collage-like shapes portraying a panoply of very good dogs, all with eager, googly eyes. Ages 4--8. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Sept.)