SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL -- Gr 4-8-Brreìmaud's latest wordless graphic novel follows the harrowing journey of a hunting mastiff who must traverse the Australian outback alone after his owner is attacked and killed by a poisonous snake. In his quest to get home to his remaining human family, the mastiff hunts for food and defends himself against aggressive wildlife, including hostile snakes and a pack of ravenous dingoes. Interspersed with the mastiff's story are panels in which platypuses, echidnas, koalas, and other Australian wildlife care for their young and hide from predators. Evoking a nature documentary, this fifth book in the “Love” series uses detailed sequential storytelling to immerse readers in the mastiff's trek. Bertolucci's rich, earthy tones; lively action sequences; and intricate portrayals of animals in their habitats vividly capture the symbiosis and the occasional brutality of Australia's wilderness. In keeping with these true-life depictions, animals and their young are shown in mortal peril as they are hunted and sometimes devoured. Nothing is glaringly graphic, but younger readers may find these scenes of violence upsetting. Despite the story's intense attention to realism, snakes seem to be portrayed as angry, almost anthropomorphized antagonists-which educators may want to address with readers.<br />VERDICT Middle grade readers interested in nature and comfortable with the story's realistic portrayal of the animal kingdom will be fascinated.<br /><br /><br /><br />

KIRKUS -- A hunter's dog undertakes a solitary journey through lavishly detailed Australian landscapes. Like its four stand-alone predecessors in the wordless Love series, the art-gathered in neat arrays of midsized panels, often superimposed onto broader views of rocky vistas-teems with naturalistically painted wildlife. Here it's all distinctively Australian and so often going about the business of living, dying, hunting, and raising young that the storyline plays out in the background. In that story a burly dog sees his master killed by a snake. After unsuccessfully trying to defend the corpse from a pack of wild dogs, he makes his way, exhausted and battered after further battles with, first, the alpha dog and then later with another venomous snake, overland to a farmhouse. There, in a poignant final sequence, the hunter's family rushes out in the dark to welcome him back. "Love" doesn't seem to be a major theme here, but while going light on gore (the hunter's eaten body is never seen-just the slavering dogs around it) and scenes of explicit predation, Bertolucci gives animal lovers plenty to pore over on nearly every page. Comments about the dangers of climate change in Australia make a worthy if tacked-on close. Immersive art gives this canine odyssey a vivid setting. <i>(Graphic fiction. 7-11)</i><br /><br /><br />