Paolo is a dog who yearns to roam around Rome. This is just the kind of armchair travel we needed while isolating at home during the pandemic. I felt transported to Italy! We watched the video version of the book on hoopla and the narration and animation were superb.

Lots of rich vocabulary and ideas to talk about with my kindergartener: curs, cowed, barbarism (Paolo goes to the Colosseum and knows thousands of years ago men and dogs were forced to fight there), indifferent, tumult, boundless, opera. And I had to explain to her who the Pope is, which was interesting.

I'm not sure exactly why, but this reminded me strongly of [b:Madeline|475339|Madeline|Ludwig Bemelmans|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1175060644l/475339._SX50_.jpg|2666907]. Maybe it's the style of the illustrations. Maybe it's the allure of a great European city. Maybe it's that Madeline and Paolo share a similar spirit. Maybe I'm thinking of [b:Madeline's Rescue|773606|Madeline's Rescue|Ludwig Bemelmans|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355323337l/773606._SX50_.jpg|214429] when the dog Genevieve rescues Madeline from the River Seine (like Paolo rescuing the nuns from the Trevi Fountain). Oh! Of course! Nuns make me think of Miss Clavel.

Overall, delightful. ( )

Derp. Mac Barnett, I usually love your books. But this one was a bit of a struggle for me. I struggled with what message you were trying to convey.

The illustrations are great. The concept of a dog exploring Rome is great (and again, it fuels my desire to go to Italy whenever that can occur). The higher level vocabulary makes it a great learning opportunity for younger audiences. But hen we border on existential....leaving adult readers to wonder if there is a theme of freedom/rebellion/subtle political message.....

And I just felt dumb because I couldn't locate it ;) ( )

a free spirit in Rome; cute story ( )