Pooch On The Loose (The After-School Kindness Crew #1) by Goldie Hawn & Lin Oliver

with the most charming illustrations by Breanna Chambers!

This world does not have enough kindness and empathy, and certainly not enough readily available mental health support, so it’s wonderful that books like this exist for young readers.

Tony, Mia and River are all fourth-grade classmates at Los Angeles’ Sycamore Elementary. Their teacher Mr Ortega wants everyone in class to bring in something that will show off a different aspect of their personality, in what he calls Surprise Us Day. Things go horribly awry, but there is at least one net positive. The three classmates all get a chance to spend lunch in the school’s Creation Station run by Mrs Gold, and swiftly become friends.

While walking home from school together with Tony’s Grandma Candy and his younger brother Zozo, the new friends come across a dog adoption event. All of the dogs seem eminently adoptable, except for extra barky Sparky. Fearful that his lack of adoptability bodes ill for him, the trio hatch a plan to keep him safe, with results that they very much do not expect.

The absolute best thing about this book is Ms Chambers’ delightful art. Whether depicting scenes from the story or the kids’ drawings themselves, every illustration is both spot-on and assured, bringing extra life and warmth to the narrative. I also really appreciated the little Brain Break sections in the book, that show kids how to just take a meditative moment to reset and recenter themselves.

The story is also very cute, and somehow manages to avoid sounding preachy. I didn’t think it was necessarily realistic — tho also maybe I grew up poor enough to understand the real sacrifice of giving up that much money — but it has a good message for readers of any age. The only thing that I didn’t like was the way four year-old Zozo was rarely, if ever disciplined for being destructive and making unnecessary work for others. And by disciplined, I don’t mean punished: I mean told that what he’s done is not okay and why, and shown how he can fix things. I can see how he thought he was enhancing Tony’s art near the beginning, but I also think he’s old enough to clean up his own messes when he spills water on the floor. It’s not a kindness not to teach little kids responsibility, and kinda weird that so much is expected of eleven year-olds instead.

That said, this is a lovely way to encourage young readers to start thinking more about kindness and creativity, and to highlight how everyone can get along and behave respectfully and learn to work together despite superficial differences. I’m definitely interested in checking out the rest of the books in this series as it continues.

Pooch On The Loose (The After-School Kindness Crew #1) by Goldie Hawn & Lin Oliver was published May 5 2026 by Penguin Workshop and is available from all good booksellers, including