Watch the House - Hardcover

Left along, five household pets (a Labrador, two cats, a guinea pig, and a canary) escape for an adventurous day outdoors, coping with an attacking hawk, a hostile porcupine, and a nest of hornets. The canary gets lost; one of the cats nearly drowns; and when they all finally come home, they have to contend with two skunks who have wandered into the house, but then they tidy up in time to seem innocent when the family arrives. Whayne strikes just the right balance here between anthropomorphism and realism: each animal has a distinct personality and voice (the dialogue is particularly well done). Short sentences, paragraphs, and chapters and a generous number of appealing drawings make the book look invitingly easy, but it isn't ``written down.'' A good vocabulary-builder for intermediate readers. (Fiction. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Grade 2-4-- As the parents and children leave the house one morning, the pets are admonished to ``watch the house.'' They do, but mostly from the outside where they have an adventurous, faintly dangerous day that ends when the family returns. The problem is that the numerous animals lack enough characterization to make each of them distinct; readers will need a list to keep all the names straight. In the 14 short chapters, the humor variously succeeds or is forced. The story, vaguely reminiscent of the Howes' Bunnicula (Atheneum, 1979) but without its sparkle and wit, is so mild that its absence would never be noticed. --Carolyn Jenks, formerly at Oyster River Elementary School, Durham, NH
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.