--"PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"
Making an auspicious entry into children's books, Laden provides a stylish, droll answer to the riddle of what dogs do while their owners sleep. Her narrator is forced to revise his low opinion of the seemingly sedentary family pet ("I always thought he was a boring dog") after he spies the pooch alighting from a limousine early one morning, wearing a tuxedo. Tailing him that night, he discovers that the doghouse is in fact a well-appointed bachelor pad and his dog the owner of a spiffy canine nightclub, where dogs go to relax, get treats without having to lie down or play dead, and "talk about their problems with the mailman, or with the poodle next door." Skewed angles and perspectives and a mauve-and-midnight-blue palette ably capture the boy's disorientation, wonder and eventual admiration of his pet's jaunty after-hours persona. The art is at once broadly expressive and full of small, witty details (e.g., the limousine's vanity plate reads K-9). The visual playfulness extends even to the hand-lettered text, which is animated by such variations as inverted lettering for "roll over," chewed lettering for "hungry," and near-pictograms (the word "sit" rests on a chair). A salutary outing spun from a simple but rich idea. Ages 4-10.

"PARENTS' CHOICE, "1994 Award Winner
This comedic gem concerns a garden-variety canine--"nothing exotic or special"--who spends his afterhours running a splendiferous nightclub for stressed-out fellow dogs. The author/artist's bold and mysterious full-paged pastels have a compelling nocturnal pizazz and her inviting, hand-lettered text encourages young listeners to supply key words on their own (witty graphic hints virtually guarantee success). This zany debut is cause for celebration.

--"SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, " February 1995
"It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your dog is?" If not, join in this book's extraordinary suppositions. A young boy relates the events of "the night I fol1owed my dog