Grub in Love

PreS-Gr 2—Ruby doesn't like boys, so she's not very happy about Billy being her new neighbor. Ruby's dirt-loving dog, Grub, stops digging and playing. Instead, he sits by the fence and growls at Tilly, Billy's dog. Billy and Tilly look like they're having fun, but Ruby and Grub remain wary. Gradually, though, Grub stops growling and starts pining for Tilly instead. Exasperated at the dog's door-scratching, fence-tunneling, nighttime-howling pangs of romance, Ruby's mom arranges a picnic for the two families. Grub and Tilly run off their excess energy while Ruby and Billy become friends. Ruby's unwavering affection for her misbehaving dog rings true, but the story is predictable and bland. The pastel-toned illustrations are unremarkable. The dogs' faces are fairly expressive, but human characters look almost uniformly cheerful and friendly, even when the text indicates otherwise.