Jia Has a Dog Problem. By Stephanie Ellen Sy. Illustrated by Isabella Kung. Kokila. $18.99.
The title here tells only half the story, the second half being “Charlie Has a Kid Problem.” The total tale is Stephanie Ellen Sy’s clever balancing act about the unexplainable but nevertheless very real fear that a little girl has of dogs – and the equally unexplainable but nevertheless very real fear that a dog has of children. It is the way the two fears are shown in parallel, and the unexpected way they are resolved at the same time, that gives this book its charm – of which it has a lot.
The underlying premise here is that “unjustifiable” fears are every bit as real as ones rooted in reality. Helpful adults specifically ask Jia – and helpful dog friends specifically ask Charlie – whether anything has actually happened that would justify their fears. The answer in both cases is no; but the fears remain and are no less real for being irrational.
The dual protagonists have their own ways of trying to avoid what scares them. Before going outdoors, Jia wears kid-designed armor: oven mitts, leg guards, elbow pads, a helmet and goggles, plus a baby bib “to protect her favorite dress from dribbly drool.” The getup is imaginatively shown in Isabella Kung’s illustrations, which at the same time show Jia’s imagination working overtime as she thinks about how dogs just might “EAT HER WHOLE” if she is not suitably protected. As for Charlie, when his human, Lucy, says it is time to go out, he figures out multiple ways to be as uncooperative as possible until he eventually ends up on his belly doing passive resistance and she has to drag him out the door.
Inevitably, Jia and Charlie, who live in the same apartment building, are going to meet, and they do, when Charlie and Lucy are in an elevator that stops on the floor where Jia is waiting, causing her to run away as the elevator door opens and shout “TAKING THE STAIRS!!” What follows is Kung’s most-amusing illustration, in which Jia and Charlie both reimagine the unexpected encounter and think of the terrible things that could have happened, from the pup growing horns and charging to the child running wild and spinning the little dog around.
Jia and Charlie meet again, fearfully, outside the building, when something surprising happens: Charlie thinks Jia’s hands smell from cookies and Jia notices that Charlie’s fur looks soft. A bit later, momentarily left to look at each other, the two have the same fear reactions – initially to each other and then, suddenly, to a fast-arriving thunderstorm that quickly drenches them both and forces them to seek shelter together, since the only dry place nearby is a sidewalk bench under which they both crawl. The immediacy of the storm threat forces the two together, literally: as the downpour continues, “they inch closer and closer” until they are side by side awaiting the reemergence of the sun. And when the storm ends – the two-page wordless drawing of Jia and Charlie with a big bright rainbow in the background is the book’s most inevitable illustration – the girl and the pup have started to develop a bond that quickly strengthens to such a point that Jia accepts Charlie’s leash from Lucy and everyone walks home together, even getting into the elevator as a group despite encountering a different dog and a boy there. Clearly this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship on which both protagonists will build in the future – and clearly, for young children and the adults who will enjoy reading Jia Has a Dog Problem with them, this is a roadmap for confronting and coping with kids’ real-world fears.
Sy’s story has some narrative holes in it, notably the fact that Lucy, who has left Charlie tied to a fire hydrant while she goes into a store, does not come out to look for him when the storm starts and in fact does not show up at all until the cloudburst ends. Kids are likely to worry about that if they notice it – and many will. Also, Jia’s parents are nowhere to be found in the story – the people concerned about her fears are her friends and adult neighbors. Still, the absence of family is a way of showing just how alone Jia feels when trying to cope with an inexplicable but very real fear that is based not in reality but in imagination. When imagination and reality eventually meet, the pleasantly upbeat outcome is one that, while not guaranteed in real life, certainly makes Jia’s world – and Charlie’s – richer and more enjoyable, not to mention tastier and softer.
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