  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 09/01/2011 When a succession of potential customers arrives at Alberto’s City Lights Restaurant with increasingly outrageous animals, a hastily established “NO DOGS ALLOWED” policy quickly progresses all the way to a policy of “NO ONE WITH FUR, FEATHERS, SHELLS, SCALES, OR TRUNKS ALLOWED.” With the text consisting only of brief utterances from the humans—mostly the spiffy, bow-tied restaurateur—and the words on the signs, it is the digitally created illustrations that tell the story. Angular, collage-style art in warmly toned colors, often with numerous framed panels to a page, makes it easy to decipher the action without the help of dialogue. When the exclusionary policies don’t work out, the restaurant rearranges the letters in its name to spell out the new name, All Critters Bistro—with “EVERYONE ALLOWED.” Children will enjoy identifying the menagerie of animals (and humans for that matter) that appear at the restaurant. Susan Meddaugh’s Martha Calling (1994) and Barbara Odanaka’s A Crazy Day at the Critter Café (2009) offer interesting comparisons. - Copyright 2011 Booklist. School Library Journal - 09/01/2011 PreS-Gr 1—Digital artwork with plenty of captivating details essentially tells this story; the only text appears in speech bubbles and changing restaurant signage. The setting is Alberto's City Lights Restaurant, a sidewalk café that sits on a square with a fountain. When the waiter spots a smiling boy and a dog coming toward the restaurant, he changes the chalkboard sign from "Welcome" to "No dogs allowed." The youngster turns away and heads for the square. A series of pet owners and their animals heads toward the restaurant, and Alberto adds them to the growing list of those not allowed. One elderly customer stops to dine alone but finds it increasingly difficult to get Alberto's attention. The pet owners purchase treats from a street vendor until she runs out of goodies. The boy solves the problem by recruiting the waiter to bring treats to the crowd in the square. Large spreads appear between pages of grouped smaller illustrations and sequential panels. Readers see an expanding variety of pets and owners; an elephant, a hippo, penguins, and a kangaroo are part of the crowd. This lively picture book is a good choice for one-on-one sharing; the details in the art could serve as a visual stimulus to initiate conversations about what is happening. A worthy selection to prompt children's interactions with picture elements in books.—Lynn Vanca, Freelance Librarian, Akron, OH - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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