In this surreal escapade, Radunsky (What Does Peace Feel Like?) speaks from the point of view of "a brave young doodle named Dude." The enigmatic piece of graffiti—an improbably long-legged blue elephant wearing clunky brown shoes, with the words "I Love You Dude" lettered above it—is painted by a child on a whitewashed wall. "Nobody was happy with me," Dude says as passersby grumble about vandalism. "I was alone, ashamed, and miserable." He leaps clumsily off the wall and seeks a surface he can call home. At first he enjoys being a decal on a mug, but he gallops away when a garish woman uses the cup for scalding coffee. He contemplates becoming a tattoo on a sunbather's ponderous belly, but decides "it was not the life for me—always hiding under shirts, rarely seeing human faces... no." After real circus elephants tease him, Dude flops listlessly onto the sidewalk ("People walked over me without even noticing"). Radunsky tells the story in flat mixed-media collages that suggest carelessly painted public walls and cheap wheat-pasted flyers. He places the endearingly awkward Dude at the mercy of a clownish, Fellini-esque public. Finally, an outsider-art connoisseur recognizes a certain spontaneity in Dude's improvised line, but by then, readers of this garrulous "long short story" may have grown impatient. For all his sentimental yearning, Dude remains a two-dimensional elephant. All ages. (Oct.) 
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Grade 2-5–A freshly painted white wall in NYC sprouts a doodle–a blue elephant with shoes and the inscription I Love You Dude above it. When the police are called to take care of the graffiti, Dude runs away and searches for a safe haven. He finds a blank yellow coffee mug, which is then purchased by a little girl who loves Dude and drinks her milk from the mug each day. The doodle is happy there until a weird aunt visits and drinks hot coffee from him. He leaves the mug in search of a place where he will be loved and appreciated. After several failed attempts, Dude gives up and lies on the sidewalk, where he is discovered by an art lover who gets him framed and hung in the museum between a Picasso and a Matisse. This odd story of acceptance and finding one's place is accompanied by Radunsky's quirky artwork, expertly rendered in mixed media and collage. Teachers may use this as a lesson in art appreciation–in this book, art truly is in the eye of the beholder. Some students will find solace in the self-realization tale and hope in the message presented; however, the audience for this long short story is limited and the book will have to be hand-sold to appreciative readers.–Angela J. Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, NS, Canada 
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