Lazy Dave

PreS-Gr 1—As a canine companion, Dave is about as boring as they come—he sleeps all day and night. What his owner Lilly doesn't know is that he is a sleepwalker. While she is at school, Dave has all kinds of adventures, from winning contests and visiting the zoo to exploring underwater and performing in the circus. He even becomes the town's hero when he inadvertently stops a diamond robber. Since Lilly remains oblivious to his shenanigans, it's a good thing that she loves him just the way he is. Portrayed with an unfailingly serene smile, Dave is a tubby but happy sort composed of smooth shapes produced by the digital alteration of pencil, paint, and chalk. Despite heavy use of white space, the pages are filled with a tastefully restrained palette of bright, high-saturation colors and neutral tints with a plethora of patterns drawn in pencil, including Dave's omnipresent "Zs." In contrast to the business of the textures around Dave, the dog and human inhabitants of the story fall flat and inexpressive with buggy round eyes and cartoon smiles, even when drawn in motion. The story is simple, but the phrasing becomes a little awkward with choppy sentence structure.