(3) 4-6 Translated by Sarah Adams. This French import recounts the education of an ugly little dog and how he must then educate the humans he lives with. The omniscient narrator fills the reader in on the behavior of both dogs and humans, and the tone is melancholy but, in the end, triumphant and loving.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(4) 4-6 Translated by Sarah Adams. Illustrated by Max Grafe. A boy stands before the wolf's enclosure at the zoo: when the wolf meets his gaze, the two trade life stories. The wolf was captured in Alaska, lost an eye, and withdrew; the boy bounced from home to home in Africa but kept telling stories and making connections. The tone (and the cloudy, dreamlike black-and-white drawings) is at once mystical and frank; after a slow start, the story is engaging.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam