My objections don’t stem from the fact that I am an adult – no one loves a character like Granny from George’s Marvellous Medicine or The Twits as much as me. But mainly adults were portrayed as greedy, materialistic and often very nasty. Hal’s grandparents were understanding and lovely, and some of the adults Hal encountered on his journey were also likeable. I arrived at a point where, every time an adult was introduced, I would wonder what their flaw would be. While adults have always had a bit of a rough deal in children’s literature (a great way to get a child reader on side) and writers such as Roald Dahl have caricatured them to wonderful comic effect, it started to feel overdone in this book. Most of the adults in the book were portrayed at the best as incompetent, or at the worst downright evil. (A bit like the business idea ‘Borrow My Doggy’ I suppose, though more cruel and cynical.) But there were elements that I became tired of. There were certainly good aspects about it – the idea of an agency that hires dogs out for the weekend or even for a day was bizarre but a believable and interesting idea. The thing is… I also started to become a little tired of the book as I read through it. It sounded like a great plot and I was keen to finish the story. He is helped on his way by spirited Kayley, who is determined to give a happy ending to all the dogs in her care. Furious with his parents for their deceit, Hal decides to run away to his grandparents’ house with Fleck, but is followed by a pack of other dogs seeking their freedom from the Easy Pets tyranny. The pair bond and Hal is the happiest he’s ever been… until Fleck is returned on Monday. That is until his father, guilt ridden for forgetting his birthday, rents mongrel Fleck for the weekend. But the one thing the boy who had everything always wanted, and never was allowed, was his own dog. He had no irritating brothers or sisters, lived in a palacial house, and had every toy imaginable given to him.
Some children might think that only-child Hal was the luckiest boy alive. One such book was One Dog and His Boy so I looked forward to planning lessons aimed at exploring this novel.īefore I go any further, here’s a brief plot summary: Recently I have been doing work for Scholastic, writing Teachers’ Guides for books aimed at children aged 5-12. Sometimes I find that I am not keen on those books because I can’t get on with the narrator’s voice. Journey to the River Sea was never a particular favourite of mine – perhaps because we ‘read’ it by listening to an audiobook. Perhaps this is because I particularly enjoy books about orphans and World War II (I don’t know why!). I put it down to her increasing disinterest in fiction at that point in time but, having recently read it myself, I wonder if there was more at work.īefore anything else, I must say that I loved The Star of Kazan and The Dragonfly Pool. Since, at the time, my husband and I were alternating reading to her at night, I only got half the story and we only reached two-thirds of the way through before she abandoned it. We embarked on reading this book but unfortunately it didn’t grab her in the same way as the previous three, which surprised me. I first encountered this book a few years ago when Holly got it to read, after enjoying Ibbotson’s other novels: The Star of Kazan, The Dragonfly Pool and Journey to the River Sea. One that I wanted particularly to review was One Dog and His Boy by Eva Ibbotson. I am trying to catch up on all the books I’ve been reading over the past few months now that I have (a little) time over the summer, away from the Library where I work.
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