Hangdog

There seems to be a lot of books around at the moment about lonely/jealous/friendless creatures. A sign of the times, maybe? This is another one to add to the list. Hangdog is a rather charming hound in a big jumper who, despite his best efforts, 'can't seem to make friends however hard he tried'. The book describes his journey, on a rather nice boat made out of an old grandfather clock, to see if there is a friend 'somewhere in the world'.

He does find one and an unlikely one too, and the story ends happily. But it lacked conviction somehow. As Keir said, 'if he was as nice as that he would have had lots of friends'. This is an adult view of the world, I think, and didn't quite work for my sociable and friendly children. Worth a try, though. It is interesting and we liked the pictures very much.