When Libby and her new friend, Annie Bananie, form a club with other neighborhood girls, the members decide Libby can be president if she can get her dog-hating grandmother to kiss Annie Bananie's dog on the lips. The book suffers from a weak premise, disjointed and frenetic writing, and the substitution of chaos for a plot. From HORN BOOK 1996, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

K-Gr 3‘A short chapter book featuring a character introduced in the picture book Annie Bananie (HarperCollins, 1989). Libby is bored with summer, upset by the coming of a new baby, and unhappy with Grandma Gert's refusal to let her have a dog. With the arrival of Annie Bananie and her huge rottweiler, Boris, things start to look up. Libby and Annie quickly become friends, and the gregarious newcomer soon expands the circle to include three other neighborhood girls. At Libby's suggestion, they form a club for dog owners. Libby, the only member without a dog, becomes president, but must prove her worth by getting her dog-hating Grandma Gert to kiss Boris. As in the picture book, Annie appears as the perfect pal, but Komaiko tries too hard here to freshen yet another friendship story. Though the rivalry between the girls is believable, the eccentric characters remain undeveloped and not very likable. In addition, the dialogue is difficult to follow and often peppered with unusual words. Annie, for example, calls Libby "matey" for no apparent reason while Grandma Gert (who likes mashed potatoes for breakfast) often begins her more excited sentences with "Aggh." All in all, a disappointment.‘Maggie McEwen, Coffin Elementary School, Brunswick, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The stage is set when young Libby declares herself bored senseless, fed up with her piano-playing brother, and longing for a dog. Soon arrives Annie, star of her own picture book (Annie Bananie, 1987), new to the block and accompanied by her giant dog, Boris. They form a club with several other girls, and the book's big moment comes from the meeting of Libby's dog-despising grandmother and Boris. What's at stake? Unless her grandmother kisses the dog, Libby can't be club president. Slight and silly, the book lacks enough characterization to distinguish any of the girls from one another, and the language doesn't reach the standard of a TV sitcom, let alone the heights Komaiko (Sally Perry's Farm, p. 690, etc.) has reached in her picture books. Packed with funny black-and-white illustrations, this is easy to read, but not necessarily worth the effort. (Fiction. 8-11)