Little Dog Lost: The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic (review)

Based on real events in the cold Polish winter of 2010, this picture book follows an unlucky dog stuck on an ice floe in the wide, fast-moving river that's taking him out to the Baltic Sea. Though firefighters from the nearby town try to help him, the river's current is too swift; he's spotted again, days later, by a ship at sea, and the determined crew eventually manages to save the exhausted pup, who then becomes the ship's mascot. It's a compact and satisfying story, and Carnesi writes with a simple immediacy that suggests the exclamations of a witness to the event ("Something is moving in the water! What is it?"), focusing on the action and largely letting the events provide their own emotional impact. The line-and-watercolor illustrations have a homey appeal, with the figures' poses more telling than their simple dot-eyed faces wrapped up in hats and scarves against the cold. Varied compositions deftly avoid boring similarity as they convey the duration of the pooch's voyage, but the brooding and seemingly inescapable slate blue waters are sufficiently ominous that the transition to a bright ship's interior is a visual relief as well. With its gripping plot and simple text, this has natural early reader possibilities as well as readaloud merits, and it'll be a treat for kids looking for an international dog story to counterbalance the melancholy of Hachiko. A concluding note summarizes the actual event and includes photos of Baltic both on his ice floe and after his rescue.