PreS-Gr 2—Employing the printmaking techniques that earned him a Caldecott Award for My Friend Rabbit (Roaring Brook, 2002), Rohmann continues to mine the depths of friendship, this time between a boy and his dog. Readers first encounter Gus and Ella frolicking with a pack of dogs; then they are framed against a low-hanging moon having a heart-to-heart. Ella explains that due to her age she "won't be around much longer. But…I'll always be with you." Furthermore, "A promise made under a full moon cannot be broken." The dog's death occurs offstage; ensuing panels depict the protagonist's dispirited movements during daily activities, his heart heavy with loss. An encounter on Halloween night forces Gus to grapple with his new reality. Walking through a graveyard in his skeleton costume, he is surrounded by the real deal. Just as things are looking grim, a skeletal Ella and a pack of flesh-and-blood canines save the day. As in Rabbit, black borders contain the action and create a cinematic distance. The green landscape and horizon line disappear in the climactic scenes, with the action playing out against a deep blue sky or a moonlit white background, furthering the sense of a movie in motion. Rohmann's bony wordplay lightens the tension, and a controlled palette provides a calming continuity, as does a conclusion that mirrors the beginning (with the exception of some ecstatic dogs trotting home with new bones). Sad, spooky, and comforting by turns, this deceptively simple approach to the loss of a pet quickens and gladdens the heart.—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library