Dog & Cat Concrete poems & conversations

Gr 3--7--Along with their human family, Dog and Cat are moving. Immediately, classic emotions emerge: denial, anger, and sadness. Dog freaks out, while Cat tries to help him accept the inevitable. But is Cat really fine? Each of them works to console the other in a charming, sweet, and funny sidebar series of conversations during days of cat napping, eating, chasing squirrels, and supporting their humans, Boy and Girl. Can they figure out how to stop this dreadful move? Only when Cat decides to take action does more chaos ensue. Grandits has artfully crafted a story of tension embedded in concrete poems in order to share the fervor of what it means to move to a new home. His perfect approach is filled with bright colors, squiggly lines, tilting text, and simple graphic line depictions of cat and dog, while text is flawlessly done in obscure fonts, causing yet more humor as readers must at times shift, tilt, turn, tip, and angle the book in order to capture the earnest and energetic reactions of a family on the move. VERDICT A heartwarming and nerve-racking poem that accurately portrays one family's emotional roller-coaster, told in the voices of its feline and canine companions, and a must-have for libraries.--Lyn Smith