Found.

by Jeff Newman, Larry Day (Illustrator)

Overview

A wordless picture book about what we lose, what we find, and what we give back.

Jenn’s beloved dog was lost sometime ago. Long enough that she has given up the search. But she still misses her friend. One day she finds a lost dog. She takes him in and despite a rocky start, she grows to love him. Until she spots his picture on a missing poster. His name is Roscoe, and he’s someone else’s best friend. Jenn knows she should return Roscoe, but she really doesn’t want to. Will Jenn do the right thing? Or will she keep this new dog she’s grown to love so much?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534410060
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	11/20/2018
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	892,848
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jeff Newman grew up in Ashland, Massachusetts, and attended The Art Institute of Boston. His picture books include Hippo! No, Rhino; The Boys; Hand Book; The Greedy Worm; and Found. He currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Larry Day is the award-winning illustrator of over twenty-five picture books, both fiction and nonfiction. He was born and raised in Gibson City, Illinois, where he flunked high school art before becoming a storyboard artist and picture book illustrator. Day currently lives in Illinois with his wife, author Miriam Busch.

Editorial Reviews

…a sweet narrative that unfolds through pictures alone, with words appearing only in signs and objects in the background…The story is so tightly constructed there's almost no room for interpretation, and I like that. The vigorous pen-and-ink art leaves a lot of white space on the page, with just occasional washes of color, adding to a sense that the book is a straightforward puzzle you're solving with visual clues, like the colors of the balls that belong to each dog.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

★ 10/01/2018
In this wordless tale about a child who learns to love a new dog, a girl gazes out her apartment window on a rainy day and spots something below. A page turn reveals what she sees: a puppy wading miserably through a puddle. As the girl brings it inside, she pauses to gaze at a bedside photo that shows her hugging another dog; a “Missing” poster on her bulletin board reveals that dog’s destiny. Despite a tough moment when the new hound takes up her lost dog’s red ball, she shares an existing dog bed and food dish with the newcomer—only to find, on a trip to the pet shop, that this pup is “Missing,” too. The girl not only allows herself to love but also understands that her love isn’t as important as what this pup needs most. The pair’s all-too-brief idyll is gently and memorably drawn, and the girl’s independence in a big city—there are no parents in sight—allows focus on her interior journey and genuinely noble decision. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

*** "A story that will break hearts so it can put them back together." - Kirkus, starred review

*** "Gently and memorably drawn." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

*** "This is a beautiful wordless book about love in all its messiness and what it means to open your heart, experience loss, and then open it again." - School Library Journal, starred review

"Isn't that one of the best things dogs can give kids, a sense of their own power?" - The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

★ 11/01/2018

PreS-Gr 2—A wordless picture book about a young girl who, while mourning the loss of her missing dog Prudence, rescues a lost dog and faces the inevitable decisions that come with loving and letting go again. Rendered in pen and ink with splashes of subtle watercolor and vibrant gouache, Day's illustrations elegantly highlight Jenn's varied emotions. In a mostly stark, black-and-white world, the use of color for only certain objects, like Jenn's clothes and the dog she rescues, draws attention to the action of the story as well as the overall mood. On a rainy night, Jenn rescues the lost dog Roscoe. Readers soon realize why Jenn is sad. Her world is still mostly monochromatic, but slowly bursts forth into pure color as her heart opens to Roscoe. There is a series of vignettes with them running together, playing ball, and rolling around on the ground. It's when she ties Roscoe to a green telephone pole outside a pet store to buy things for him, that she notices the "Lost" sign with his picture. She wrestles with the choice of what to do. Jenn brings Roscoe back to his original owner and, downtrodden, walks past the Humane Society window, where a forlorn bulldog holds one paw against a window. The ending spread reveals a glimpse of the bulldog's tail disappearing into Jenn's kitchen. This is a beautiful wordless book about love in all its messiness and what it means to open your heart, experience loss, and then open it again. VERDICT A first purchase.—Rachel Zuffa, Case High School, Racine, WI

School Library Journal

★ 2018-07-30

After losing their own beloved pet, a young child finds and returns a lost puppy in this wordless picture book from Newman and Day.

On a rainy night, a forlorn pup wanders into a young child's view. The child doesn't hesitate to bring the little dog inside, and once the two are safe and dry inside, photos on the wall and a few abandoned dog toys reveal that the child has lost their own dog. The friendship between the pair is tentative at first, but as the little dog sweetly persists, the child's reticence melts away. But no sooner does the pair begin to bond than they come upon a flier with the pup's picture, and reluctantly the child gives up and returns their new friend. The quiet in this picture book goes far beyond a simple absence of words. The beautifully and visually crafted hush is a wellspring of emotion: the agony of loss, the exuberance of a sudden friendship, the resignation of a hard decision, and finally the guarded hope of a new beginning. Day's ink-and-watercolor illustrations shape the story and capture feeling—that most elusive of narrative dimensions—in effortless sequences of movement and masterful use of color and perspective. The child has fluffy, black hair and paper-white skin.

A story that will break hearts so it can put them back together. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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