No Dogs Allowed! by Sonia Manzano

This is a whirlwind romp with an energetic family trying to relax at the beach. The author has played Maria on Sesame Street for over 20 years, so she is pretty recognizable to children and adults alike. Aside from the charming story, the illustrations by Jon J Muth are magical. There were so lots of interesting formats for the text and illustrations that help impress upon the reader a strong sense of movement.

This family is on their way out the door, but it takes a lot to make it happen. The story demonstrates the importance of family--everyone seemed to be included: the Wise Old People (grandparents), cousins, neighbors, etc.--enough to make quite a caravan of cars. Instead of wallowing in what they couldn't do once they reached the beach and became aware of the No Dogs Allowed Policy, they used problem solving to make the day still amazing. I liked that they were able to use the limitations on where El Exigente (a valued family member, too) could relax.

I know that these characters have a lot of interesting traits that children would love to know about. There is quite a lot of text, so a more advance reader of picture books would better enjoy this story. I think Manzano could write an entire library of fun books based on some of these newly introduced personalities.