Bernard Makes a Splash!

Bernard, a shy hound with soulful eyes and poignantly long ears, is the manager of a pool that hosts an annual global dog diving competition (humans and other species are welcome to cheer from the stands). He’s devoted years to secretly observing the divers and practicing alone late at night, yet whenever he thinks about competing, “his knees started knocking, his heart went thump-thump.” Finally, he summons enough courage to don a coordinated green-and-white diving outfit, and with an in-the-nick-of-time, empathic assist from a top hound diver named Perrie (“She’d been really shy once/ and knew how it felt./ Seeing Bernard tremble just made her heart melt”), he makes the jump (his ears trailing behind) and wins a gold star. Stickley (Bake Like Mommy) strikes an offbeat vibe by combining collage with textured paints and loose sketches: one spread portrays the canine competitors disembarking from a white plane on a pink runway, bringing to mind the arrival of 1960s rock stars. The “you go, dog” message is familiar, but the quirky images and earnest protagonist should set tails wagging. Ages 3–up. [em](Apr.) [/em]