Before You Were Mine
"Before you were mine . . . " wonders a little boy, "[d]id you live in a warm house with warm smells and a rug that was only yours? [Or were] you kept on a chain, with a dusty bowl and lonely sounds all around?" Never varying from this direct address, the little boy speculates about the life his dog may have led before being adopted from the shelter. He imagines happiness, cruelty, misfortune, neglect: "[Maybe] you ran away and they never heard that if your dog runs away, you look for him . . . until you find him." Softly framed pastel panels and vignettes depict a round, mustard-colored little mutt playing with an imagined boy, making puppy-mischief, alone and scared, before being taken to the shelter for "a meal, and a bath, and a bed of your own" before coming home with the narrator. Boelts's restrained text and Walker's affecting illustrations combine to pack a small wallop directly to the hearts of dog-loving children who will almost certainly give their pets an extra hug afterwards. A note on adopting a shelter pet follows this unabashedly emotional offering. (Picture book. 4-8) --Kirkus Reviews October, 2007"A poignant, thought-provoking book." --School Library Journal, 12/01/2007"In this witty, wise picture book Boelts presents a kids-eye view of a consumer fad that rages through school at gale force." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review,  12/05/2007"Whether children are on the shoe-owning or the shoe-envying side of the economic line, they can sympathize with Jeremy and rejoice in the way he eventually resolves his problem with his too-small shoes." --The Horn Book, 11/01/2007"Cozy, soft-edged pictures of an adorable dog characterize this warm-hearted book in which a boy, whose dog has died, gets another dog from a shelter.  The young narrator, thrilled with his new pet, speculates about the dog's past in a series of questions.  He imagines another boy loving the dog and playing with it:  "Was your boy proud when you learned a trick?  Did he talk about you at recess?"  He pictures the dog as a lively puppy whose owners were annoyed by his chewing and digging, and in a few imagined scenes, the dog appears neglected and unhappy.  But the story comes full circle as the narrator welcomes the shivering stray into its friendly new home.  The pastel illustrations use a variety of layouts to infuse the story with emotion, and the author's note speaks of the "ripple of hope" created when someone adopts a dog.  Children are likely to beg their parents for a trip to the shelter after reading this moving book." Kathleen Odean --Booklist Dec. 2007PreS-Gr 2Boelts does an outstanding job of exploring the adoption of a rescued dog from a shelter. An unnamed boy whose family takes in this sweet-looking pet describes what the animal's life might have been like "before you were mine." The child wonders if his dog was loved, but too mischievous for the previous owners, or if they moved into a "no dogs allowed" apartment, or if he got lost, and "they never heard that...you look for him...until you find him." The boy also imagines how tough life must have been when the animal was on his own, and how frightened he might have been, even after being rescued. Walker's illustrations--some muted, others vibrantly colored--perfectly capture the misery and fear, the uncertainty, and ultimately the rapture of this pup because "you're home." The text and illustrations create moods that shift between poignant and blissful. A short essay about the "ripple of hope" created by a successful adoption of a dog from a shelter is appended. Pair this title with Marc Simont's The Stray Dog (HarperCollins, 2001) to drive home the joyous outcome when the right family meets up with the right dog.--Deborah Vose, Highlands Elementary School, Braintree, MA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --School Library Journal