Educating Arthur

PreS-Gr 1 Arthur the dog wants to help his family, but his efforts are misguided. Grandpa hits upon a solution: train Arthur to do useful things like fetching the paper and reward him with hugs and dog biscuits. Arthur learns his tasks and revels in his rewards. All goes well until early one morning Arthur decides ``to practice helpingall by himself.'' With everyone still asleep and not at the ready with hugs and biscuits, Arthur collects his reward ``all by himself''a staggering tower of food from the refrigerator. Arthur has acted like a dog throughout the book so that the sight of him wrapped in a napkin, anticipating a precariously-balanced mixture of human foods, is jarring. Full-page warm-toned illustrations show Arthur and his owners to be overwhelmingly large, with huge noses and wild eyes that verge on the grotesque. At times it is difficult to distinguish the dog from the background as he flashes by or blends in with the wallpaper. There is no doubt that the illustrations of the irrepressible Arthur bring dash to the text, but they bend it out of shape with the final shift to anthropomorphism. Instead, go with Kellogg's Pinkerton, Behave! (Dial, 1979). Jane Saliers, Atlanta Public Library