Broadway Barks
Kindergarten-Grade 2—Well, it is what it is: an idealized promotional piece for Broadway Barks, the annual New York City pet adopt-a-thon founded by Peters and Mary Tyler Moore in 1998. Sad little Douglas is abandoned in Central Park, where no one walks him or feeds him or loves him. He is befriended and taken into a smiling and willing driver's yellow cab by a pretty red-haired stranger (Peters) and taken to Shubert Alley, where Moore emcees an adoption pet show/pageant. Obedient and adorable, Douglas meets a little girl, is given a new name, Kramer, and is taken to live happily-ever-after with his new family. Murphy's bright mixed-media cartoon illustrations include snips of measuring tape, telegrams, and pieces of printed matter that become the buildings, trees, and sidewalks of Manhattan. Douglas/Kramer is a cute concoction of gray flannel and a fine mutt of a mascot for this message, which is accompanied by a CD on which Peters reads the story. Royalties will be donated to the cause. An NYC-centric companion for Maribeth Boelt'sBefore You Were Mine(Putnam, 2007) and Bob Graham'sLet's Get a Pup! Said Kate(Candlewick, 2001).—Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CTCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.