Lucy

Lucy is a homeless little white dog. Each day she finds her way through town past many places to the building with the red door where a little girl named Eleanor drops some breakfast down on a string for Lucy. Then Lucy finds a cool place to sleep and dreams of her former life. Eleanor’s father is a great juggler, but he has terrible stage fright, and it’s standing in the way of his success. Eleanor thinks she knows the best way to help her father overcome his stage fright. The stories of these three characters intersect and come to their full fruition when they all come together in a very unexpected way. This is a sweet story of different kinds of friendship, support, and happiness.

This is a most unusual book for children, and one that will be a big hit with the early elementary crowd. It’s really a picture book with a longer, more involved story. For kids ready to “graduate” to “big books” from picture books, this sweet tome with illustrations and very little text on each page is perfect because it looks like a grown-up book but is written for little readers.