Where Are You, Brontë?

PreS-Gr 2–In sequences of sensitive pairings, McClintock does full justice to the late dePaola’s last completed manuscript—a poignant ode to his Airedale terrier Brontë—with scenes of a cotton-bearded old man and his woolly, flop-eared comrade sharing 12-plus years of affectionate companionship. With the titular question floating overhead (and answered in the end), the author recalls special moments and memories from first meeting on, pausing to marvel at how even favorite dog toys were loved but never destroyed, and how Brontë could find the water dish and all three beds even after going blind. “The day you left me, I knew I would miss you,” he writes. “But then I knew you were right here, still with me, in my heart forever.” In her warm afterword, the veteran illustrator articulates the challenge of evoking dePaola’s gift for “speaking volumes through simplicity” into art that still reflects her own distinctive sensibility. Her success is easily measured in vivid depictions of the pooch passing from frisky pup to old dog over the years, and in the intensity of feeling that shines out of every scene, right up to final views (one drawn, one a photograph) of the smiling pair in heart-shaped frames.