Publisher's Weekly Review

Giving readers a front-row seat to a comical encounter based on Aesop's "The Dog and His Reflection," Tabor (Sir Ladybug) once again takes a picture book's physical form into account, asking readers to open it vertically. So done, Simon, a frolicking, floofy brown pooch with highly expressive eyebrows, occupies the top half of each spread, while his reflection in a park pond appears below the book's gutter. Like his fabled progenitor, Simon thinks his reflection is a second pooch with "a better bone" than the excellent specimen in Simon's mouth--and he wants it. Digitally assembled pencil, colored pencil, and acrylic art, which combines textures scribbly and velvety, chronicles Simon's unsuccessful attempts to best his "scrawny little" rival with a series of challenges ("He chased his tail while playing dead while reciting his favorite poem") and a "polite warning." Finally, Simon pounces, loses the bone in the drink, and gets thoroughly soaked. Aesop ended the story there with a gotcha, but Tabor offers a more contemporary arc of redemption and kindness: seeing that the other dog has "lost your bone, too," a contrite Simon finds a replacement and drops it into the pond as an act of friendship. Is Simon a silly dog? Of course--and a real sweetheart, too. Ages 4--8. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (May)