Dog Food - Hardcover

If you think living, breathing puppies are cute, wait until you see this fabulous book of photographs of fruit-and-vegetable dogs. Yes, Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers (Play with Your Food, How Are You Peeling?, One Lonely Seahorse) are back, with one of their best efforts to date. Not only are the doggies themselves endearing and clever (the broccoli-tufted French poodle is pure genius), but the wordplay and visual punch lines are terrific as well. "Chilly dog," crafted from a potato, shivers next to a mushroom snowman. "Dog bowl," contrary to what you might envision, is a dog made out of a radish, with a black olive on its paw, poised to topple banana-tip bowling pins. "Dog catcher," reveals a jalapeņo dachshund catching a squash Frisbee in midair. "Let sleeping dogs lie" you say? There they are, sleepy, sleepy banana peel dogs at the end. The eye-popping endpapers showcase the entire kennel of creations on a bright turquoise background. This immensely appealing book will be irresistible to almost any human, but dog (and produce) lovers will sprout wings and zoom skyward. (Ages 4 to 104) --Karin Snelson

In the fertile mind of artist/sculptor Saxton Freymann, a cauliflower is a poodle, an artichoke is a wolf, a banana is an octopus, and a pumpkin is just about anything. Fruits and veggies - meticulously carved, then photographed - are his special gift to the bountiful world of children's literature. "What's great about food," he says, "is that it keeps all of the photos fun." Freymann lives in New York City with his wife and three children, all of whom are very healthy, he says, because they eat the cast of characters he works on. For more information about Saxton Freymann, visit: scholastic.com/tradebooks Born in The Netherlands to artist parents, Joost turned his creative energy to food in 1976, when he became fascinated with the garnishes used by Japanese sushi chefs. The result was Play With Your Food, his first collaboration with Saxton Freymann, and a bestseller for the whole family. Joost believes that if you can open children's eyes and thinking with things they can understand and duplicate - like food creations - a new range of creativity opens up. "Then," he says, "you can take them to a museum."