Smelly Peggy

A rescue dog is much loved by her new family, but she is a bit wild, has her own way of going about things and crucially is very smelly. How can the family love her?

There is a lot to delight a young reader here: the dog knocks people over with a big stick on the beach; she rolls in rabbit poo and wipes herself on the little girl’s pyjamas. This naughty (the author’s words) behaviour is a disruptive carnival at home or outside, and goes beyond the usual behaviour of a young child in a way that is both comic and dreadful. The reader is invited to sympathise with the dog and the child; an adult reader might look at the horrified adults with glee.

Both in terms of style of illustration and family context we are very much in classic Bob Graham territory (Let’s Get A Pup! or How the Sun Got to Coco’s House) in a cosy description of family life, and it is none the worse for that: the story raises important questions about socialisation and inclusion without being heavy-handed, and the story might even obliquely suggest the tolerance needed when a new member of a family arrives. The greatest design feature for me has to be the peritext, where Pie, the little girl narrator, first of all plays with a very accepting, biddable dog and in the endpapers copes with her cat-menacing dog who also chases Pie; a charming way of broadening the narrative without over complicating a story aimed at being shared with four and five year olds.