This wordless picturebook tells the story of a lost puppy and the kind woman who rescues it. It’s a tale about building trust, being patient and ultimately forming a close human-animal bond.

It’s told in a mix of panelled and full-bleed pages, so the story is well paced and easy to follow. The title page shows the vulnerable lone puppy curled up in a ball, sheltering under a park bench. Turn the page and we see a young woman approaching the bench, who wants to sit and quietly read her newspaper. Scared, the puppy dashes away, but not before each has spotted the other. From afar, the little creature becomes curious about the woman – and she about it.

The following day the woman returns and throws a ball to the puppy. It is interested but still far too wary to come near her. So it spends another night in the park.

This is shown on a full-bleed page where we see a silhouette of the puppy against a midnight-blue starry sky (below). The puppy’s hunched posture and  low position on the page conveys its isolation and despair, but the luminous crescent moon high on the right suggests an element of hope.

This is one of several stunning large images throughout the book. Guojing initially drew her pictures in pencil and watercolour, then subsequently finished them off digitally. The texture of Stormy’s ginger fur in particular is beautifully rendered, as is its cute black button nose. The colour palette is predominately brown, orange and black, with occasional touches of blue.

Another day, another encounter. This time the puppy definitely wants to play with the ball, but it is still not brave enough to come close to the woman. So they both sit on the ground and take a long hard look at each other.

As the sun sets in a deep orange glow, the woman encourages the puppy to come home with her. But it is only prepared to follow her at a safe distance.

In a line, they leave the park, cross a road, walk along a street and turn a corner into the road where the woman lives. We see her open her front door and disappear. Soon we see her outline appear in an upstairs window.

The puppy, who has not followed the woman into the house, remains outside in the dark, staring longingly up at the lit window.

During the night there’s a terrible storm, with drenching rain and forked lightning, requiring the puppy to seek shelter under an old cardboard box. While it does so, we see the woman dashing out into the rain, umbrella aloft, and heading to the park. She is clearly concerned about the puppy’s welfare as she searches for it under the usual bench. Sadly she is unsuccessful.

Disappointed and dejected, dragging the umbrella behind her now, the woman heads back home. To her surprise, she finds the puppy in the cardboard box outside her door. She comforts the forlorn animal and carries it into her flat. There she dries it off and gives it a good meal. After which, it sleeps, first on a cushion at the foot of her bed, then on the bed itself. It has found a new home at last.

Guojing is a Chinese author and illustrator of picturebooks and graphic novels. She studied at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and her first wordless book was the highly acclaimed The Only Child. It received several international awards, including winning the The New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books award in 2015. Her latest book, a graphic novel called Oasis, was published early in 2025. Guojing now lives in Vancouver, Canada.