Grub in love

In this sequel to Ruby and Grub, published earlier this year, Ruby isn't sure how she feels about new neighbor Billy, but her dog, Grub, knows exactly how he feels about Billy's pet, Tilly. Tilly feels the same, but though their human keepers understand what's going on, they keep the dogs apart, leading to unhappiness on both sides of the fence. While it takes an oddly long time for the families to reach the obvious decision to bring the dogs together ("We still didn't know what to do about Grub and Tilly," says Ruby, mere pages from the end), the sweet, genial energy in Warburton's illustrations keeps the story afloat. Ages 4–8. (Dec.) [Page ]. Copyright 2015 PWxyz LLC

PreS-Gr 2—Ruby doesn't like boys, so she's not very happy about Billy being her new neighbor. Ruby's dirt-loving dog, Grub, stops digging and playing. Instead, he sits by the fence and growls at Tilly, Billy's dog. Billy and Tilly look like they're having fun, but Ruby and Grub remain wary. Gradually, though, Grub stops growling and starts pining for Tilly instead. Exasperated at the dog's door-scratching, fence-tunneling, nighttime-howling pangs of romance, Ruby's mom arranges a picnic for the two families. Grub and Tilly run off their excess energy while Ruby and Billy become friends. Ruby's unwavering affection for her misbehaving dog rings true, but the story is predictable and bland. The pastel-toned illustrations are unremarkable. The dogs' faces are fairly expressive, but human characters look almost uniformly cheerful and friendly, even when the text indicates otherwise. VERDICT Buy this title only where previous series entries are popular.—Rachel Anne Mencke, St. Matthew's Parish School, Pacific Palisades, CA [Page 60]. (c) Copyright 2016 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

PreS-Gr 2—Ruby doesn't like boys, so she's not very happy about Billy being her new neighbor. Ruby's dirt-loving dog, Grub, stops digging and playing. Instead, he sits by the fence and growls at Tilly, Billy's dog. Billy and Tilly look like they're having fun, but Ruby and Grub remain wary. Gradually, though, Grub stops growling and starts pining for Tilly instead. Exasperated at the dog's door-scratching, fence-tunneling, nighttime-howling pangs of romance, Ruby's mom arranges a picnic for the two families. Grub and Tilly run off their excess energy while Ruby and Billy become friends. Ruby's unwavering affection for her misbehaving dog rings true, but the story is predictable and bland. The pastel-toned illustrations are unremarkable. The dogs' faces are fairly expressive, but human characters look almost uniformly cheerful and friendly, even when the text indicates otherwise. VERDICT Buy this title only where previous series entries are popular.—Rachel Anne Mencke, St. Matthew's Parish School, Pacific Palisades, CA [Page 60]. (c) Copyright 2016 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In this sequel to Ruby and Grub, Grub is in love with the new dog next door, a situation that blossoms into a nice friendship for the dogs' respective owners, who have a picnic together for the sake of their lovesick canines.

In this sequel to Ruby and Grub (ISBN: 9781499800852; Published: 6/2/15), Grub is in love with the new dog next door!Ruby and Grub are a little suspicious of the new boy and dog who move in next door. But one day, Ruby finds Grub behaving strangely. He moaned and groaned, grunted and grumbled, snorted and sniffed. What could be wrong? Mom knows, Grub is in love! At first Ruby and the boy play and have a picnic together for the sake of their lovesick dogs, but soon their friendship begins to grow, too, which makes Grub very happy!