Up Cat, and: Up Dog (review)

Concept books with a difference, these two board books explore numerous permutations of the word "up," with each page offering it in a phrase, often a simple two-word compound verb ("open up," "mess up," "gather up"), that documents the critter-related activity as pooch and kitty go through their days. The kitty wakes for a day of kitty play ("leap up") until there's too much mayhem for the owner, who puts the cat up to the windowsill only for Puss to slip right back into the house. The dog's happy day starts with an excursion outside and a subsequent return to the house with a muddy bone. After the mess gets too much for the pup's owner, the dog is banished until the house and yard (and he himself) are put back to rights and he can go back inside for a cuddle ("Snuggle up"). Up Dog is the better of the two, with its effective story trajectory and largely successful use of the text structure; Up Cat is more of a list, and events get perplexing at times (what's the cat scratching up and covering up? How come the cat transports from the armchair in "curl up and" to a rug in "soak up the sun"?). Fanny's art beams with unassuming charm; saturated painterly digital colors suggest acrylics, styled with a few touches of patterning and slender black outlining. Both Dog and Cat have huge baby heads with wide, endearing eyes, and they scamper through an open world inhabited by a few homey pieces of furniture and cheerful decorative flowers. With their simple texts and inventive and rather sophisticated riffs on a single word, these could have potential for beginning reading and early language arts use as well as playful lap sharing with audiences who will enjoy following the animal antics.