Albert, the Dog Who Liked to Ride in Taxis

Albert, an urban dachshund, has a real weakness for taxis. This yen is limited to rides with his human mistress--until the day he sneaks into a taxi on his own. It's a slippery slope from there. Soon he's hopping taxis all over town, planning adventures to the Kalahari Desert, California, and beyond. Eventually Albert winds up at the airport and discovers "astonishing airplanes" that look like giant white birds and his allegiance to the earthbound yellow cars is challenged.

Pierre Pratt's wonderful, thick paintings work hard to make up for the sometimes bewildering, often overwhelming swaths of Cynthia Zarin's text. A ruthless editor could pare this story down to a charming dog-in-the-city tale; as it is, there are too many gratuitous characters and tangents for a young reader's plot-driven mind. A better bet would be Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben's Gaspard and Lisa series (Lisa in New York, Gaspard on Vacation, etc.). Still, for children who don't mind just going with the flow, following a high-strung pooch all around Manhattan, this is an entertaining and imaginative little romp. (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter