Dog Blue by Polly Dunbar

40 p., Candlewick, 2004.

Sometimes our ideas about what's perfect make it difficult to see what really is perfect. In this story, Bertie loves the color blue, and so he wants a blue dog more than anything. When he yaps while pretending to be the blue dog he wishes for, he's surprised when someone yaps back - a little white dog with black spots, "all alone and looking for an owner." Bertie immediately thinks the dog is wonderful, and adopts it. But the dog isn't blue. He finally solves this problem by giving the dog something blue: the name Blue. They become best friends, and love each other very much. With its simple, expressive illustrations, this story shows children the possibilities of using their imagination to discover what they want, and recognizing when they've discovered this in reality, even if it doesn't appear so at first.

Ages 3-5