In Excellent Ed, a dog longs for confirmation that he is special and important to his family. Each of the Ellis children are gifted at one thing or another, and Ed wants to know what he contributes to the group. He knows he is good at “forgetting stuff” and “losing stuff,” but is that enough to make him one of the excellent Ellises?

Illustrator Julia Sarcone-Roach uses yellows, blues, and greens to frame each page. The happy, warm expressions of Ed and the Ellis family are drawn in crayon and grease pencil. The Real Committee could recognize this book for its excellence in pictorial interpretation of a concept, which in this case would be the love and loyalty of a dog to his family.

Starting with the endpapers, Ed is featured on every page in various poses and actions that are familiar to any dog owner. He rolls around, scratches his back on the ground, wags his tail, begs his family for food, and digs up dirt. The depictions of his joy and sorrow in his journey to find his gift are palpable. Also, while Ed is clearly the star of the show, it’s lovely to see a family of color (Ed’s family is Black) featured so prominently in a picture book.

I wonder if the Real Committee will find Ed excellent, too.