After a “ruff day” in which being scorned by big dogs for not being a “true muttropolitan” leaves him feeling “lower than a stick on the ground,” he eats some flowers, strums some tunes, forms a band with a trio of little dogs, and, after sending the big pooches packing, trots out a “pawsome” performance at the “Battle of the Bow-Wows.” And from there it’s on to the Grand Ole Opry to hear his big-haired favorite singer warble out lines from her song “Makin’ Fun Ain’t Funny,” about celebrating differences rather than mocking them. Inspired by musical dreams, Billy heads for Nashville.
Promising at the outset that this is just the first of a series of adventures starring her beloved “god-dog,” Parton goes on to hit all the conventional thematic notes. In this picture book from singer Parton and co-author Perl, a small French bulldog goes to Nashville, joins a band, fends off bullies, and meets one of the queens of country music. This unusual look at a beloved pet’s death may be helpful to some families. The book has a small trim, and the tiny, often low-contrast type can be hard to read. The black backgrounds gradually shrink into decreasingly small black silhouettes of the dog against colored backgrounds some of these silhouettes may strike child readers as rather scary. Two illustrations in particular demonstrate a direct view of death, one with the children carrying the dog in a blanket to bury her and another with the dog in rigor mortis with her paws sticking up in the air. The illustrations are in a primitive style using black backgrounds with simple line drawings in white chalk lines, so it’s hard to determine the children’s race or ethnicity. A hopeful ending has the children convinced they can hear Scout barking “straight from the clear blue heavens,” shown in a cheery illustration in which multiple dogs play among the clouds. Heaven is presented as a happy place in the clouds, although God is not mentioned. The little brother asks poignant questions about Scout and what she might be doing in heaven, and the older siblings reassure him that their dog is now happy and cared for. The text describes the dog’s death, as the children witness Scout’s last breath while she rests in her bed. First published in the Netherlands, this story deals with the death of a large, black dog named Scout and how the three children in Scout’s family experience and ultimately accept her death.Īn older brother and sister narrate the story, patiently reassuring their little brother and answering his questions when they can.
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