Two Together by Brendan Wenzel (review)

Reviewed by: Two Together by Brendan Wenzel Natalie Berglind Wenzel, Brendan Two Together; written and illus. by Brendan Wenzel. Chronicle, 2024 44p Trade ed. ISBN 9781797202778 18. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* 4-7 yrs In this follow-up to picture books They All Saw a Cat and Inside Cat (BCCB 10/21), a dog and a cat journey back home from the outdoors. A gentle introduction to the differences between Dog and Cat allows viewers to identify the art styles of their implied visual perspectives: swoopy, sloppy brushstrokes for Dog and frenetic, sharp, colored pencil lines for Cat. Their views of different objects in nature, like a bird and a frog, are split down the middle with each art style. The contrast becomes more apparent as Cat and Dog's journey progresses and the initially simple backgrounds fill with their views of the world, culminating in a beautifully mirrored two-page spread of the night sky under a luminous moon. Eventually, the two head home, and when they gaze at each other by the front door of their house, each is drawn in the other's art style. The text has a gentle cadence and mainly utilizes short phrases ("Two together find a toad. Watch it hop. Where'd it go? Through the scrub. Through the grass") that are as pleasing to the ear as they are accessible for youngsters to try reading on their own. Wenzel's creativity in depicting the differing but compatible perspectives of the dog and cat, and his adeptness at doing so solely through illustrations, is on par with the creative interpretation of a cat's world in Inside Cat. For viewers who own both dogs and cats, this book is sure to resonate with their pets' dynamic, and for viewers who are staunchly dog people or cat people, well, they just may start to see the appeal of the other side. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois