Chowder by Peter Brown

From the Publisher

Chowder is a hilarious and heartwarming story that introduces an endearing new character: a weird but completely loveable bulldog who learns to make friends by being true to his quirks.

Publishers Weekly

Chowder, an English bulldog, baffles everybody with his precocious behavior. He uses the toilet and the computer, and while regular dogs chew bones, he excavates a dinosaur skeleton. His doting owners, Madge and Bernie Wubbington, tote him in a baby backpack; they "liked to think of him as quirky, but most people thought he was just plain weird." One day, lonesome Chowder spies a billboard for a megamart's new petting zoo: "All the neighborhood dogs had said Chowder belonged in a zoo, and he wondered if they were right." In bizarre events involving the supermarket and a kickball game, Chowder befriends the Critter Corral's captive pony, cow, sheep and others. With mixed results, Brown (Flight of the Dodo) invests food shopping and zoo life with excitement. He composes smooth, meticulous paintings, and softens his sculpted pencil edges with a faint acrylic fuzz. Chowder's owners are disco-era throwbacks; their dorkiness helps account for Chowder's uniqueness, although the nerd jokes and the retro palette might be lost on younger readers. Brown pictures Chowder with melancholy jowls and sad, squeezed eyes; the most sympathetic pictures show his beady eyes widening and a drippy tongue lolling happily from his bulldozer-scoop underbite. Bulldog lovers may find Chowder endearing, but despite his offbeat pursuits, he remains elusive, and the convoluted, upbeat outcome feels like wishful thinking. Ages 3-6. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

Chowder, with his flattened face and his drooling tongue, is a spectacularly ugly bulldog. He is also distinctly undoggy; he loves doing things that people do, like sitting at the computer and peering through his doting owners' telescope. It is hard to make friends with other dogs, though, when you prefer to assemble bones like an archaeologist rather than bury them. When he discovers that a new petting zoo is opening, Chowder schemes for a visit, hoping to find some congenial friends there. His adventures at the Critter Corral involve a spectacular flying leap, a heroic rescue by the petting zoo animals, and, finally, a set of delightful new playmates (author-illustrator Brown says he's daydreaming of a future pet bulldog.) Browns of all varieties prevail in the acrylic paintings (even the endpapers are a rich chocolate), along with edgy bright colors, like the pigs' pinks, the teal and aquamarine of a restroom, and the offbeat green-yellow of grass and trees. This bulldog's world is full of smooth rounded shapes: Chowder himself, his chubby mistress, the farm animals, a customer on an elevator, and even the trees are pregnant ovals. A chic apartment full of hi-tech gadgets, the overwhelming size of the Food Ranch hypermarket, and simplified shapes with slick surfaces give this quirky picture book a very contemporary look. Young dog lovers will realize that the basic story is as familiar as the ongoing quest for friendship. Moral: when you're a bit weird, it's a relief to find a gaggle of like-minded friends.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4-Chowder is not like most bulldogs. Instead of burying bones, he busily arranges them into a skeletal formation, as an archaeologist would. He gets about town with his doting owners in the type of backpack that a toddler would ride in, and he uses the toilet like a human. His "quirkiness" leads the neighborhood canines to conclude that he would be better off in a zoo, so it is with mounting excitement that he spots the grocery store's new "Critter Corral" through his balcony telescope and looks forward to making friends there. Brown's static, acrylic-and-pencil compositions and the repetition of visual elements across the page yield strong designs. The rounded figures and precise patterning suggest a Playmobil world, with a touch of texture. The scenes depicted through the telescope are circular close-ups, framed in black. The parting shot, showing how Chowder communicates with his new friends even when they can't be together, requires a bit of visual sophistication, as does the book in general. Its wacky comedy and the quest for acceptance will best be appreciated by those who've been around the block a few times. Fans of Anthony Browne and Craig Frazier will sit up and beg for more.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The very first page of this decidedly different dog story lets the reader know that Chowder the bulldog does things his own way. There he is in his bathroom sitting on the toilet, or rather using the toilet, as the seat is up. The text states that both people and dogs "thought he was just plain weird," and that Chowder wants to fit in with his canine pals, but doesn't, due to his different interests. Chowder assembles dog bones into a dinosaur skeleton, reads the newspaper and uses a computer and a telescope. When Chowder discovers a new petting zoo (though there are no people there to pet the animals), he finds a more diverse and accepting group of animals to play with. Chowder plays new games with them on their territory, forgetting about his computer and his newspaper. Though the acrylic-and-pencil illustrations have a droll attraction, Chowder himself is not a particularly appealing character. He has mean eyes and a scary countenance, particularly on the cover, where he looks like he'd like to bite an unsuspecting reader. (Picture book. 4-7)

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