Tiny Dogs

This charming children’s story introduces pocket-sized heroes that will delight any young readers who love dogs. It focuses on a young girl called Beatrice and is set in her grandparents’ wild and wonderful (and somewhat neglected) garden.

Bea is a little nervous about her new life living at her grandparents’ country cottage. Though she loves them dearly, Bea has so far only met them on screen and, being a ‘quiet and easy girl who never makes a fuss’, Bea is not sure what to expect and struggles to find the words to discuss her worries with her mum. Her fears are soon allayed by her grandparents’ doting and affection, and she begins to enjoy her new countryside home – especially the overgrown garden, where blackbirds and beetles roam amongst the flowers and weeds.

Bea has a calm and peaceful character that allows her to connect quietly with the nature in her garden, and draws the attention of four unexpected new friends. The tiny dogs are a rarely seen species who hide in gardens from the heavy presence of human beings, but Bea is able to gain their trust. She is gentle and patient and offers food and shelter for her new tiny friends, who make her gifts of feathers and flowers and seeds, and invite her to join in their snail racing games.

Naturally, the tiny dogs are adorable creatures. Pepper, Clover, Sorrel and Willow are four different species of tiny dog, and each has a defining characteristic that contributes to the pack (leadership, playfulness…sleepiness!). Children will enjoy reading about the harmless, playful interactions between Bea and her new pals, but the story’s peace is interrupted by the frightful, obnoxious demands from Bea’s new next door neighbour – Mrs Thistlewort – who vehemently dislikes the overgrown, messy nature of Bea’s garden to such an extent that she threatens to take the truly evil step of expelling Bea’s grandparents from the neighbourhood committee! This motivates Bea’s grandparents to consider paving the entire garden, which would mean the end of her new friendship with the tiny dogs.

Mrs Thistlewort’s grumpiness provides a somewhat arbitrary deadline of one week for Bea to save the garden by tidying it up so, of course, she enlists the help of the tiny dogs in their effort to show all the grown-ups that Bea is capable of maintaining the garden to a standard that is acceptable to the neighbourhood committee. Such a substantial responsibility would terrify Bea, usually, but the kindness and reciprocal relationship she enjoys from the tiny dogs teaches Bea to find her voice and to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. This coincides with an effort from Bea’s grandmother to trust Bea and to encourage her to advocate for herself, even though Mrs Thistlewort can appear formidable! As a result, Bea, slowly, as the story progresses, begins to feel a ‘buzz of bravery’ in her belly, which is mimicked by her new miniature partners.

Tiny Dogs celebrates how heroes come in all shapes and sizes and reminds readers that we don’t always have to be loud, brash and confident to make a difference in the world. Though the problems that Bea and her family face could easily be dismissed as small or frivolous, the way that Bea overcomes them, without ever departing from her calm and peaceful nature, is reassuring and endearing. There is just enough originality and fun in the characters of the four tiny dogs, too, to suggest that this series could become a future favourite for dog-loving young readers.