Brooklyn Bailey, the Missing Dog
Brooklyn Bailey, the Missing Dog is a true story. Yotam and Emile are bothers who live with Ima, their mom. Yotam and his mom go to Henry’s Local coffee shop before school and bring Bailey with them.
Yotam sees a friend inside, so he ties up Bailey to a metal chair and goes in to say hi. His mom is in line. A lady outside bumps the chair and startles Bailey, who takes off, pulling the metal chair behind him. The next four pages show Yotam and Ima searching for their dog.
“Suddenly Yotam saw Bailey stop!” Yotam tries to sneak up on Bailey whose leash is caught on a fence. But Bailey manages to pull the harness form the leash and escape again. Her ID tag falls off, too.
Then two more pages follow of Yotam searching, but to no avail.
Back home Ima comforts Yotam, saying that the dog will come back. Emile helps Yotam make a flyer. They go to the print shop where the owner says the flyers are on the house.
The boys hang up flyers around the neighborhood. At school the other kids try to comfort Yotam. Ima hangs up more flyers. The mail carrier and the garbage man offer to spread the word. Ima’s friend Debbie offers to light a candle for Bailey in church.
Sapti and Grandpa bring pizza for supper while Yotam worries on. Ima goes out driving to find bailey with no luck.
Then the phone calls start coming. People have spotted Bailey and have called the number on the flyers. Yotam worries on.
Yotam dreams about Bailey. In the morning, he finds poop on the sidewalk that looks like Bailey’s.
Another day at school for Yotam to worry. Sapti and Grandpa come for dinner again while Ima goes out on her bike, looking for Bailey. She calls Yotam and tells him hurry and look outside. The dog is reunited with the family.
Yotam and Ima take Bailey to the vet after school the next day. Then they decide to have a welcome home party for Bailey. Yotam changes the missing signs to invitation signs. All the people that helped look for Bailey come to the party. Yotam stops worrying.
The book is a charmer. The stylized art is done in cool blues, greens, grays, with white and black plus some warm reds and peach used as accent colors. The end papers are minty green. Bailey is mostly white with some beige accents and a pink harness. The words are black on some pages and white on other pages, depending on the background color. On one page, the black words span two colors: white and blue, and on another page, they span the colors pink and green.
The best line is early in the book when Yotam and Emile “liked to roll around with her on the rug and toss her the slobby pink ball.” A ball with slobber on it!
An animal story with a happy ending is the best kind of book for young children. Readers will be rooting for Bailey to come home with every page turn. They will worry along with Yotam. They will celebrate with the family at the end.
They will learn about a neighborhood in a big city where the people stepped up to help a boy find his dog.