A friend pulled Carl’s Afternoon in the Park (1991) from a bookstore shelf and said, “You’ve got to see this.” That was in 1992. What fun it’s been finding books by Alexandra Day ever since.
Carl is an enormous Rottweiler that looks after a child while his owners are away. The idea for this series came from a visit to Switzerland when Day “came across a volume of old German picture sheets, one of which featured a poodle playing with a baby who was supposed to be taking a nap.” Her own dogs were models for Carl. The photos in Carl Makes a Scrapbook (1994) include a very young Madeleine, the child we watch grow from baby to young child in Carl Goes Shopping (1989) through to Carl’s Sleepy Afternoon (2005). The books are basically wordless. Everyone in town seems to know Carl and says a friendly hello.
Carl and Madeleine have lots of fun while Mom is away and Mom never seems to find out–a skill near and dear to the hearts of children, I suppose. How fun it is to have a canine accomplice riding a merry-go-round, playing in a flower bed, and pilfering a couple of cookies from a bakery. The premise is playful, the hijinks are harmless, and painting is my favorite form of illustration.
More than 30 years later, I admit, I get anxious about the pairing of young children and dogs. A neighbor’s dog bit my own toddler back in the day. And dog attacks appear in the news now and then. I follow an Instagram account that once had hilarious, well-crafted reels about two family dogs. Lately, the videos feature a new baby. I watch anxiously as the baby plays beside them.
Alexandra Day is the pseudonym for Sandra Louise Woodward Darling, and she created many more books besides the Carl series. My favorite is The Christmas We Moved to the Barn (1997) by Alexandra Day and Cooper Edens. Something about the snowy landscape, the family of animals, and the loving drama of hauling everything out of a house on Christmas Eve has a warmth that lingers. I get the feeling everything will work out.
Books Too 
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