Dogs

Narrated in the first person, this witty celebration of dogs takes the form of a book of opposites featuring many different canine breeds. Thus the double page spread for ‘I love big dogs and small dogs’ is completely filled by a Great Dane that gazes down with surprise at the boldness of the miniscule Chihuahua between its paws. A refreshingly colloquial variant on the opposites theme, ‘I love stroppy dogs and soppy dogs’ has a mean looking Bullmastiff glaring menacingly at a whimsically playful Bichon Frise.

But is it a Bullmastiff? A frustration of this otherwise splendidly devised picture book is that not all of the breeds of dog depicted are identified on the endpapers.

The book is printed on a voluptuous cream stock which provides a plain background against which Gravett’s dogs play, bark, scratch, chew things and interact with each other. Her dextrous pencil line runs riot with wagging tails and flying fur while her shading and watercolour washes freely applied convey the sinuous, quivering tension of alert bodies. Above all, Gravett expresses each individual personality – we feel we get to know each of her dogs in their own right.

And what is the twist in this tale? The identity of the narrator of course – revealed on the final page.