I can't help but quote Elaine Moss, the editor who wrote the afterward in my Puffin publication of this lovely book. She gave the manuscript of this book to a nine-year-old boy named Charlie to read, after he finished reading it he said, "I loved the story, but I'm not sure if I'll tell my friends, because I don't want to have to talk about it with anyone."

A Dog so Small - Etsy UK A Dog so Small - Etsy UK

Ezard, John (21 June 2007). "Pullman children's book voted best in 70 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2012.Ann Philippa Pearce OBE FRSL (22 January 1920 – 21 December 2006) was an English author of children's books. Best known of them is the time-slip novel Tom's Midnight Garden, which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, as the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. [3] Pearce was a commended runner-up for the Medal a further four times. [4] [a] Early life [ edit ] After an accident makes the family re evaluate there lives and think about moving into a cleaner part of London the possibility of keeping one of his grand fathers puppies becomes a reality. However does ben really want a real dog or does he just want the wonderful idea of his chikiteto in his emagination?

A Dog So Small by Mrs Philippa Pearce | Waterstones

This is exactly how I felt. This was one of the most private stories I've ever read. Philippa Pearce gives us, the readers, this rare privilege of *seeing* inside young Ben's mind and heart to his deepest feelings and longings, to the extent that you feel it is not your place to pass that on other than to simply say, "READ THIS BOOK!" The book tells the story of dog-obsessed Ben Blewitt who believes he is owed a dog simply because his grandfather half-promises him one. When this wish does not come to fruition Ben compensates by creating an imaginary dog (inspired by a picture his grandparents gave him in place of a real dog) which he sees when he closes his eyes. His imaginary chihuahua is brave and fearless and can fight off thousands of wolves, leap over massive spaces and, most importantly, he can get Ben almost killed which does happen in most of the scenes that best proves how ridiculous Ben is (that and the final couple of chapters which I won't spoil for you but portray Ben as a horrible person).

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Philippa Pearce OBE (1920-2006) was an English author of children's books. Her most famous work is the time slip fantasy novel Tom's Midnight Garden, which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, as the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. Pearce was four further times a commended runner-up for the Medal. I would have given it 3 stars if in the end he was crying about how happy he was because he finally had a dog. A Dog So Small' is about the inner life of a boy, an inner life that is more rel to him the the rumbustious life that is going on around him...." ~ Elaine Moss Honestly, I have no idea why he is allowed a dog. This child should NOT be responsible for a dog AT ALL. He's just a selfish, boring, boring character. Philippa Pearce grew up in a millhouse near Cambridge and read English and history at Girton College. She was a scriptwriter-producer for the BBC, a children's book editor and reviewer, a lecturer, a storyteller and freelance writer for radio and newspapers as well as writing some of the best-loved books of the 20th century. She won a Carnegie Medal for TOM'S MIDNIGHT GARDEN and a Whitbread Prize for THE BATTLE OF BUBBLE AND SQUEAK also published by Puffin Books. She died in December, 2006. Read more Details

BBC One - Jackanory, A Dog So Small BBC One - Jackanory, A Dog So Small

Ann Philippa Pearce was the youngest of four children of a flour miller and corn merchant, Ernest Alexander Pearce, and his wife Gertrude Alice née Ramsden, who lived at the Mill House by the River Cam in the village of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, where she was brought up. [5] She started school only at the age of eight because of illness, then she went on to attend the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge and win a scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge to read English and History. The youngest of four children of a flour miller and corn merchant, Ernest Alexander Pearce, and his wife Gertrude Alice née Ramsden, Philippa Pearce was born in the village of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, and brought up there on the River Cam at the Mill House. Starting school late at the age of eight because of illness, she was educated at the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge, and went on to Girton College, Cambridge on a scholarship to read English and History there. So I had read most of this book and was getting near the end, and I was thinkig that the ending was going to be a nice,sweet, happy ending. But oh no. Puffin Modern Classics are relaunched under a new logo: A Puffin Book. There are 20 titles to collect in the series, listed below, all with exciting new covers and fun-filled endnotes. I thought this was a good story to teach children that what you expect is not always what you get however can still be just as enjoyible. Sometimes we may not end up with the very thing we've hoped for but what we do end up with can be exactly what we need. Ben had to learn this on his Journey when Brown was not the dog he'd cunjured up in his mind.

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Another weird thing was that Ben's parents wanted to move house because... it was too big. Like there was literally no reason for them to move (except that it was convenient to the plot) The dad was close to his work, the house was nice and big, it was near Ben's school (not that he paid attention anyway because he was too busy thinking of his beloved Chiquitito. Pearce wrote over thirty books, including A Dog So Small (1962), The Squirrel Wife (1971), The Battle of Bubble and Squeak (1978) and The Way To Sattin Shore (1983). The Shadow Cage and other tales of the supernatural (1977), Bubble and Squeak, and Sattin Shore were the later three of her four Carnegie Medal runners-up. [4] [a] The Battle of Bubble and Squeak inspired a two-part television adaptation in Channel 4's Talk, Write and Read series of educational programming. So to start off, Ben (our main character) really wants a dog. He gets a cross stitch chihuahua which has been passed down his family, for his birthday. After this he keeps imagining that this chihuahua, which he calls 'Chiquitito' is with him. It becomes his everything, he is obsessed with this imaginary dog as he can't have a real one. This even led him to step out onto a road... with his eyes closed. A Dog So Small is a dance between London and Cambridge; the story of a boy who quite simply wants a dog. He is desperate for a dog, in that way that we all have been desperate for something at some point in our lives, and he does, eventually, acquire a dog. It is a dog of imagination; something he sees in his mind, something - someone - that he makes happen and live; and this is both good and bad, really, in equal measure. Good, because it fills that desperate ache inside of him but bad, too, because of how it affects him. Sometimes the imaginary world is comfier, safer, than the real. It is tough being a middle child and more so when the age between your two older sisters or two younger brothers is great. Your place in the family is unstable; you’re searching for someone or something to just help you fit in and to share your life with. So when the day comes for Ben to receive his gift from his grandparents, his heart is broken and trust shattered when he only receives a woven image of a Chihuahua in a frame. The fact dawns on him that he will never own a dog because it’d be too big for the house and central London is no place to raise a large dog. So what does Ben do? He imagines a dog so small that only he can see it, play with it and care for it. But in becoming so engrossed in imagining this creature, Ben loses touch with the real world and a tragic accident happens which calls on the family to consider everyone’s futures.