The Bookshop Dog - Cynthia Rylant

1996
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Lavender with painted-on purple dog bones, coral hearts & yellow dots

Artwork: No white - all paintings. Thick painted borders (you can see the paint lines) with some sort of small embellishment (swirls/dots, whie diamonds with red dot, dots in triangular sets of three, x's, moon slivers, triangles with dots, v's, x's and o's, rectangles with dots - a great model for student-made pages! Colorful great font, great illustrations to a fun stry.

Story: A nameless lady owns a bookstore. She has a yellow lab that she LOVES and takes everywhere with her - so she renames her bookstore after Martha Jane. Everyone loves Martha Jane, and much of the community comes frequently to the bookshtore and get to know her. When the bookshop owner has to have her tonsils removed, everyone bickers over who will "babysit" Martha Jane. A happy ending ( think "Here Comes the Bride") to a dog-lovin' story.