Where's Pup?

My 2.5-year-old daughter loves this book and echos almost every single sentence after her father. It's the cutest thing to hear. She does not do this with any other book read to her. Another benefit is that my 6.5-year-old 1st grader (learning to read) can practice reading with this book also. The text is short enough to engage attention of the youngest listener and hooks them in by playing a fun game: searching for something or someone. And that balding clown is cute, he does look like Woody Allen.

4 to 8 ages?? My 15 months boy loves this book!!, We read it only 8 or 10 times a day because I hide it!! He learn the 'where something is?' He loves to play we are Claire and Piere, point the elephant, etc. And when we find pup, he climbs a chair to simulate he has pup. Lovely book!

After reading, "Where's Pup?" a single question burned itself into my brain and sat there bubbling for hours afterwards. Mainly: Is that Woody Allen wandering around this picture book? And the answer, as far as I can ascertain, is yes. Yes, that is Woody Allen scouring a circus in clown clothes for his little dog. And yes, he finds the pup in the end. Our intrepid hero has lost his dog (as should be well indicated by the title of this piece). Determined to find his pup he confronts various members of the circus entourage. Each person or persons answers in a lovely sing-songy rhyme, usually indicating that the Woody Allen looking clown should try someone else. For example, when he confronts a magician and his lovely lady in a box (artfully cut apart), the lady replies, "Don't know. Go ask Jo. She's feeding Mo". When he later confronts a man about to blow a pig out of a cannon he's told, "No clue. Go ask Sue. She's riding Blue". You get the idea. By the end, the poor clown is stumped. That is, until he looks at the top of a bodybuilder pyramid. Now, the edition of this book that I read came from the library. This final picture folds out and at its very top is, I can only assume, pup on a chair. Unfortunately, multiple readings by smallish children rendered this final panel nonexistent (it got ripped off somewhere along the way). So watch out. This book appears to be easily torn by eager little hands. In a final shot the clown joins his pup (I was a little disappointed that it wasn't dressed like Annie Hall) on the chair and the two hug. A sweet ending. The text of this story is well done. None of the rhymes ever feel strained or forced. They flow trippingly off the tongue and lead the reader from one circus performer to another with the greatest of ease. Even kids unfamiliar with circuses and circus life will understand and appreciate the clown's search for a beloved pet. Now if there was only something we could do about his love life...

Even those who dislike clowns will adore this clown with the oversized glasses and shoes. Orange and red acrylic illustrations create the magical world of circus life. Illustrations are simple but fun - a trainer giving his elephant a shampoo, a pig waiting to be shot out of a cannon, as well as others. In rhyming text a clown searches for his beloved pet. The circus finale of a foldout and the discovery of the missing pet will delight new readers.

My 2 1/2 year old can't get enough of this short rhyming book. The pictures are bright and there's a little surprise at the end.