When Vivian the Dachshund moves from her rural home to New York City, she isn't too impressed at first. For such a "big" city, everything seems pretty small to this giant canine. Then her new pal Lulu takes her on a tour, showing her everything from Grand Central Station to Central Park, and Vivian realizes that the city has some appeal after all. Especially with a friend like Lulu around...

A picture-book debut from photographer Mitch Boyer, Vivian the Dog Moves to the Big City features a gigantic dog superimposed against photographs of iconic New York sites in the illustrations. It's an interesting style - you don't see very many photo-illustrated picture-books these days - but not one I find particularly appealing. The story itself is sweet but unremarkable. All in all, this one isn't one that made a strong impression on me, and I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone, unless they were specifically looking for this style of illustration. ( )