Harry and Lulu - Hardcover

Yorinks (Hey, Al) mines the much-visited "Calvin and Hobbes" vein in this tale of a toy that comes to life, but with an intercontinental twist. Lulu is a grouchy blonde girl who begs her parents for a real dog. When they present her with a plush red toy poodle substitute named Harry instead, "Lulu went lulu.... She threw poor stuffed Harry onto the floor and kicked him and stamped her feet and banged the wall and slammed her door. Whew!" Unsurprisingly, Lulu's bedtime is soon interrupted by a "squeaky bark." The temperamental urchin peers over the foot of the bed to see an animate Harry, who is not at all happy about being mistreated. Furrowing his curly brow and dramatically pointing his paw skyward, the poodle threatens to leave Lulu for his alleged home country, France. At this, Lulu races to her closet, chooses a prim red coat and green beret worthy of Ludwig Bemelmans's Madeline, and accompanies her pet on a whirlwind trip to Paris, and by the time they return home, before dawn, they are the best of friends. Matje (When It Starts to Snow), a Parisian himself, gives readers a captivating bird's-eye view of the city's monuments and buildings, drawn on a vertiginous two-dimensional grid in a delicate, controlled ink line. His intimate scenes of caf?s, street corners and the algae-green Seine have powerful panache, and Lulu's attitude improves greatly in this sophisticated setting. Her transformation testifies to the magic of dogs and the City of Lights. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreSchool-Grade 2-An odd twist on the usual fantasy of a child who believes a toy is real. Lulu refuses to believe that Harry, the stuffed animal given to her instead of the pet she requests, is a real dog. Harry, for his part, is determined to prove himself. The tale has a happy ending when Harry saves Lulu's life and Lulu, in turn, saves Harry's. It is written in an arch, tongue-in-cheek style, full of strange inconsistencies (even for a fantasy). Harry and Lulu start out with an adversarial relationship; they snipe at one another verbally and, in disgust, Harry announces that he will return to France where he came from (even though he later confesses to being from Indiana). Lulu decides to accompany Harry even though she dislikes him, and they seem to walk to Paris over night. However, the watercolor-and-gouache cartoons do not show readers how this is accomplished. In Paris, Harry realizes that he loves Lulu and rescues her from the path of a speeding car, but the author gives readers little information to support this conversion. In addition, some spreads, like that of Lulu dressing for the trip to Paris, and the otherwise charming Parisian scenes, do little to advance the central story. Unlike Yorinks and Egielski's penultimate picture-book fantasy Hey, Al (Farrar, 1986), this effort lacks consistent internal logic and heart.
Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Greenwich, CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.