Bailey at the Museum (review)

Bailey, the confident pooch whose grade-school matriculation was chronicled in Bailey, now joins his class on a field trip to the natural history museum. After ditching his designated buddy to splash in the fountain at the main door, Bailey quickly recovers his school manners and rejoins the group as they're greeted by the stodgy docent. Some displays are a little disappointing, but the T. rex bones are everything a dog could desire, and Bailey is up the display in a shot, gnawing on a tailbone. The guard who retrieves Bailey takes a shine to the pooch, and soon guard and dog are sharing lunch and even getting briefly lost together. While the youngest listeners can easily follow Bailey's Curious George-style exploits via the narration line that runs along the top of most spreads, older children and adults recruited for readaloud duty will appreciate the goofy little gems hidden in plain sight: the "Do not dance" caution label on the extension ladder; the author's name "Author" on all reading matter, the "Almost Organic Soy Stuff " on the milk carton; the Greek urn decorated with the stylized dog chasing a squirrel. Less cerebral, perhaps, than his similarly thick-snouted, flop-eared literary cousin Snoopy, Bailey boasts the same pettable charm and the same tendency to share only his thoughts, never his words. Bailey and his long-suffering cartoon classmates will have firmly secured a fan base with this outing.