The Adventures of Easton The Rescue Pet: The Dog in the Deli

A potential meat shortage (See Excerpt above) causes a dog to take independent retrieval action, that being to head to a source of meat and, in this case,, one with which it is familiar – a local deli. However, the presence of an unattended large dog running in the aisles of the deli creates some level of concern among adult customers before a little girl intervenes and identifies the dog’s name and its owner’s phone number via the tag on the dog’s collar. Retrieved by its owner, the dog is returned to its home and a bowl of “mouth-watering kibble – again!”

The Dog in the Deli is not a third-person telling though. Instead, Retter has chosen to tell the story (which is evidently based on a real happening involving the family’s rescue dog) from the first-person perspective of the dog, Easton. Retter’s choice makes the story more immediate and, at times, adds a bit of humour, such Easton’s remembering Mom’s leaving him outside the deli when they had visited it together as being an act of inclusion rather than exclusion: Mom always goes in there while I stand guard at the door.

Izzy Bean’s illustrations are one of its highlights of the book. According to the publisher’s website, “Izzy Bean is a children’s picture book illustrator from the UK who specializes in paintings that are vibrant, colourful and full of life and emotion.” With Retter’s having elected to tell the story from the dog’s perspective, Bean’s full-page renderings of Easton are essential in reflecting the emotions being ascribed to Easton by the text, and, overall, Bean succeeds quite well. A nice touch is Bean’s addition of a spot “head and shoulders” illustration on the bottom corner of each recto text page, with the emotion on Easton’s face’s being clearly reflective of what he was feeling at that moment.

An end note explains that “Easton is a rescue dog who was born in Pennsylvania and adopted by the author and her family in Toronto, Canada.” The Dog in the Deli is the first book in a series, with each book intended to present just a single day in Easton’s life. A full-colour picture of the real Easton (and the author) can be found on the back cover and Easton alone on the book’s penultimate page. The book’s only slight shortcoming resides in the author’s decision to set the action during the Covid pandemic, a happening that will probably need to be explained to future audiences.