Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

Dog is a stray. He doesn’t have any other name. Just Dog. No one has owned him, so he was never given a name. He lives off food from the dumpster next to a local diner. And he sleeps on a discarded duvet in an abandoned, partly roofless building. He has toys, too, and a trampoline, all rescued from the trash. One night on his way home, a strange sound startles Dog. A star, Little Star, falls from the sky. Dog rescues the star, nourishes it as best he can, and helps it find a way back to the night sky where it belongs, where it wants to be. In return, Little Star helps Dog one night when he loses his way. Friends for life, even if Dog doesn’t know star language and Little Star doesn’t know dog language.

Dinarte De Freitas's story, Dog the Stray and Little Star (Coloring Book), is a cheery story about unexpected and unusual friendships. The plot develops nicely from a simple introduction to Dog and how he lives on his own, to finding Little Star and helping it return to the night sky. The illustrations are line drawings, so the young reader can enjoy coloring them in and creating their own unique, colorful picture book. This little gem of a book, with its interactive coloring exercise, is a great way to teach young readers about friendship, about caring for others in spite of their differences, about dealing with life’s problems on our own, and, most important, about hope. Both Dog and Little Star have their moments of fear, which need a powerful dose of hope to rescue them. Told with compassion and care.