My Dog, My Cat

First-time author Fletcher plays it safe in this back-and-forth monologue about her two pets. They're drawn as flat, graphic shapes, heavily outlined in black with big, wiggly frames in contrasting colors surrounding each drawing. A series of contrasting observations unfold ("My dog barks. My cat meows") and grow more complex. "My dog likes to dig down low" accompanies a picture of the dog looking eagerly at a hole under a bright sun. "My cat likes to climb up high" shows the cat on a tree limb against a night sky. Despite the differences between the two animals, pleasing symmetries can be found in the opposing panels (the zigzag of an errant baseball echoes that of an unraveling ball of yarn). The punch line is cute%E2%80%94"My dog and my cat both love pepperoni pizza! And my dog and my cat both love ME!"%E2%80%94and that's it. There's little visual development in the artwork and little that's unexpected about the text; both are straightforward and clear. Very young readers sometimes crave the security of simple stories, and Fletcher has given them one. Ages 3%E2%80%938. (Aug.)