Lola Loves Walkies
Jake Hope and James Brown
UCLAN Publishing

Meet Lola, a furry creature with many loves, so author Jake Hope tells us: she loves kisses and cuddles, having fun with friends, snoozing in sunny places and her favourite of all, walkies, especially when her human takes her to the park.

She has a particular predilection for hide and seek. Paddling along beside the pond is another of her favoured activities and on reaching the bench, she hides to watch the ducks waddling past. Like pretty well, all pooches, Lula enjoys chasing and retrieving objects but thus far, we readers have yet to see Lola in her entirety.

This is revealed in a fun final twist that will amuse adult sharers (who may have guessed what’s afoot) as well as the children they read the story with.
Illustrator James Brown has done a splendid job creating thirteen richly hued scenes of the lively main character enjoying herself without giving the game away about her identity until the final spread.

Serena and the Little Blue Dog
Rosemary Clunie
Zephyr Books

‘Once upon a time a little girl called Serena lived in a cottage in the woods. She was friends with all the birds and animals of the forest. … But what she really wanted was a special friend of her own.’ : so begins a magic modern fairy tale. One day as she’s wandering in the woods surrounding her home, there suddenly appears a little blue dog. Not knowing at the time, that he’s magic, Serena names him Haiku. She takes him home with her and they become the best of friends. Haiku grows and grows until one day he’s grown too big for her house. Seeing her sadness, he asks what’s wrong. Surprised he’s able to talk, Serena tells the blue dog what is wrong and together they embark on an adventure that takes them over a mountain eastwards, over plains, into valleys and between fields to a distant castle to consult the wise woman. On the way Serena is given three stones – a green one from the mountain bird, a red one from a snake and a yellow one from a golden fish.
These, as per the sweet-voiced woman’s instructions, she places into her crown. What the woman tells her comes as a surprise,

but does it help Serena with Haiku and the size problem?

With its friendship theme Rosemary Clunie has created with striking illustrations and a longish text, a kind of modern fairy tale that can be enjoyed by solo readers as well as shared with young listeners, perhaps as a bedtime story read over several nights.