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A Dog So Small
For months, Ben Blewitt has been thinking about dogs. Alsations, Great Danes, mastiffs, blood-hounds... so imagine his disappointment when, for his birthday, Ben receives not a dog, but a picture of a dog.Ben's imagination soon gets to work, though, and that's when his strange adventures begin.
142 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1962
19 people are currently reading
596 people want to read
About the author
Philippa Pearce
78 books114 followersPhilippa Pearce was an acclaimed English author of children’s literature, best remembered for her classic time-slip novel Tom’s Midnight Garden, which won the 1958 Carnegie Medal and remains a staple of British children’s fiction. Raised in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, in the Mill House by the River Cam, Pearce drew lifelong inspiration from her rural upbringing. Educated at the Perse School for Girls and Girton College, Cambridge, she studied English and History before working as a civil servant and later producing schools’ radio programmes for the BBC.
Her debut, Minnow on the Say (1955), inspired by local landscapes and a childhood canoe trip, was a Carnegie runner-up and later adapted for television. Tom’s Midnight Garden, also rooted in her childhood environment, became her most celebrated work, inspiring multiple adaptations for stage, screen, and television. Pearce went on to publish over thirty books, including A Dog So Small, The Squirrel Wife, The Battle of Bubble and Squeak, and The Way to Sattin Shore, with several earning further Carnegie commendations.
Married briefly to Martin Christie, with whom she had a daughter, Pearce returned to Great Shelford in 1973, where she lived until her death in 2006. Her legacy continues through the annual Philippa Pearce Lecture, celebrating excellence in children’s literature.
Her debut, Minnow on the Say (1955), inspired by local landscapes and a childhood canoe trip, was a Carnegie runner-up and later adapted for television. Tom’s Midnight Garden, also rooted in her childhood environment, became her most celebrated work, inspiring multiple adaptations for stage, screen, and television. Pearce went on to publish over thirty books, including A Dog So Small, The Squirrel Wife, The Battle of Bubble and Squeak, and The Way to Sattin Shore, with several earning further Carnegie commendations.
Married briefly to Martin Christie, with whom she had a daughter, Pearce returned to Great Shelford in 1973, where she lived until her death in 2006. Her legacy continues through the annual Philippa Pearce Lecture, celebrating excellence in children’s literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
October 1, 2025
Philippa Pearce once observed that ‘there is very much unpleasantness in childhood that we adults forget - and much that some simply dare not remember. For, let’s face it, a good deal of childhood is strong stuff for adults and totally unsuitable for children.’
Pearce’s ability to successfully interpret the world through the eyes of a child makes the rereading ‘A Dog So Small’ a poignant and often uncomfortable experience. This is also very much a narrative of its place and time (it was published in 1962) when children’s physical boundaries were freer but more also much more emotionally constrained.
The maturity of the writing also suggests that the reader can interpret this tale in a variety of ways. Bear in mind the author’s observation above as you read.
Pearce’s ability to successfully interpret the world through the eyes of a child makes the rereading ‘A Dog So Small’ a poignant and often uncomfortable experience. This is also very much a narrative of its place and time (it was published in 1962) when children’s physical boundaries were freer but more also much more emotionally constrained.
The maturity of the writing also suggests that the reader can interpret this tale in a variety of ways. Bear in mind the author’s observation above as you read.
May 23, 2014
This is a great book for young people, about Ben who lives in London. Ben would love a dog - a big dog, like a Borzoi, say. But there is no room. His family has no garden. So he decides maybe the only way is to have a dog so small you can only see it with your eyes shut.
Meanwhile his gran shows him a picture of a Chihuahua dog so he imagines this dog - Chiqitita - is following him around London. Poor, lonely Ben, with no friends, takes to riding the Tube all day, walking the streets, alone but for his dog so small that nobody else can see it. Obviously nobody should do this today, it would be very dangerous, and the story was written decades ago.
When his family suddenly moves to near Hampstead Heath the possibility arises that Ben could have a real dog, maybe Brown, from a litter of pups. But does he want a real dog, or does he want Chiqitita?
A very good story for pre-teens to adults.
Meanwhile his gran shows him a picture of a Chihuahua dog so he imagines this dog - Chiqitita - is following him around London. Poor, lonely Ben, with no friends, takes to riding the Tube all day, walking the streets, alone but for his dog so small that nobody else can see it. Obviously nobody should do this today, it would be very dangerous, and the story was written decades ago.
When his family suddenly moves to near Hampstead Heath the possibility arises that Ben could have a real dog, maybe Brown, from a litter of pups. But does he want a real dog, or does he want Chiqitita?
A very good story for pre-teens to adults.
April 13, 2020
Ever since the moment when Ben’s grandfather whispered conspiratorially of a promise of a for his birthday, Ben has done nothing but dream and imagine the moment. Whilst his grandparents live in the country with their own dog, Ben and his large, busy family live a rather bustling life in central London, a short stop away from Big Ben.
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.
That desire and longing which is so prevalent in childhood, wanting something that is beyond either their reach or purpose, is a memory I remember well. The desire for a pet, a promise broken by a trusting adult are hard and deeply confusing childhood experiences and Pearce captures it all so perfectly here. As with all her work, there is a deep sense of respect for the reader. For me, where most authors would have tied the ending up in order to spare the reader any more conflict, Pearce stays true to Ben’s character and presents us with a close which shows that he still has much to learn about what he wants and why he wants it.
This is a highly accomplished short novel and I was surprised to read that it was originally ‘turned down by OUP and, instead, published by Constable in 1982.’
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.
That desire and longing which is so prevalent in childhood, wanting something that is beyond either their reach or purpose, is a memory I remember well. The desire for a pet, a promise broken by a trusting adult are hard and deeply confusing childhood experiences and Pearce captures it all so perfectly here. As with all her work, there is a deep sense of respect for the reader. For me, where most authors would have tied the ending up in order to spare the reader any more conflict, Pearce stays true to Ben’s character and presents us with a close which shows that he still has much to learn about what he wants and why he wants it.
This is a highly accomplished short novel and I was surprised to read that it was originally ‘turned down by OUP and, instead, published by Constable in 1982.’
October 28, 2014
My first comment on "A Dog So Small" is that I am surprised it has gotten such positive reviews on here. Whilst others found this book to be charming and/or heartbreaking I found it to be aimless and meandering and I found the protagonist to be selfish, obsessive and a terrible role model to the children who this book is aimed at.
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).
The book is aimed for a Key Stage 2 audience and has several words in it which children will not know. I came across this book as it was a guided reading book for the Year 6 class I work with but I fail to see how they can enjoy reading something like this when the class next door are reading Anthony Horowitz comedies. I would not recommend 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).
The book is aimed for a Key Stage 2 audience and has several words in it which children will not know. I came across this book as it was a guided reading book for the Year 6 class I work with but I fail to see how they can enjoy reading something like this when the class next door are reading Anthony Horowitz comedies. I would not recommend this book.
October 26, 2015
A slim, tight story that gives so much more than it suggests, A Dog So Small always feels rather Tardis like to me. I have written before on the thick, luscious stylistics of Pearce's writing; the summer heat of Minnow on The Say and the charming, charming grace of her style is something that I will always come to. She is one of those writers who is both vividly British to me and deeply evocative in how she captures that endless space of potential that is the Summer holidays in the countryside. (I return, endlessly, to Summer when I think of Pearce, and I think of days that do not end with darkness, and light that beckons at the window and promises of adventure).
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.
Dogs. Longing. Hope. Heartbreak. Family. And wickedly beautiful asides that capture character in mere seconds: "Ben was outpaced by a man in a bowler hat and dark suit, carrying a briefcase. He had walked from Tooting and was going to his office in the City, where he liked to be at his desk by half past eight in the morning. He did this every morning - he was not a married man."
Richness, really, richness.
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.
Dogs. Longing. Hope. Heartbreak. Family. And wickedly beautiful asides that capture character in mere seconds: "Ben was outpaced by a man in a bowler hat and dark suit, carrying a briefcase. He had walked from Tooting and was going to his office in the City, where he liked to be at his desk by half past eight in the morning. He did this every morning - he was not a married man."
Richness, really, richness.
October 23, 2025
What a strange and unique book! The author constantly toys with our emotions. We think it's going in one direction, then it goes another, then another. I was ready to throw the book on the last page, and then I sobbed through the last three paragraphs. Then I threw the book after. It was okay. Had its moments.
8 year old rating - 5 stars
10 year old rating - 3 stars
I recommend it if you're looking for a boy who wants a dog book set in London and is really unusual.
8 year old rating - 5 stars
10 year old rating - 3 stars
I recommend it if you're looking for a boy who wants a dog book set in London and is really unusual.
October 29, 2021
ENGLISH: A book about a boy obsessed with having a dog, although he knows that a dog in London, in a house where seven people live, is a practically insoluble problem. The trouble is that his heated imagination leads him astray...
ESPAÑOL: El chico protagonista está obsesionado por tener un perrito, aunque sabe que tener un perro en Londres, en una casa en la que viven siete personas, es un problema prácticamente insoluble. Lo malo es que su imaginación calenturienta le lleva por mal camino...
ESPAÑOL: El chico protagonista está obsesionado por tener un perrito, aunque sabe que tener un perro en Londres, en una casa en la que viven siete personas, es un problema prácticamente insoluble. Lo malo es que su imaginación calenturienta le lleva por mal camino...
October 20, 2020
My goodness. Where to start? I was originally going to give this book 3 stars but then I read the last chapter and I just lost all hope, but lets get to that later.
I had two main problems with this book
1. The dog wasn't real
2. Ben was such an awful character
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.
So this whole time the dog wasn't even real, so it didn't really mean anything because it was just imaginary.
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.
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.
THIS BIT CONTAINS SPOILERS
(This part talks about the last chapter and what happens in the end)
So in the last few chapters of this book Ben finally gets a dog from his grandparents, who's dog has had puppies. (He can get a dog now because his parents have convienetly moved into a flat where there is lots of green space)
But after Ben spends the WHOLE book doing literally nothing except thinking about a dog of his own. He cries because this new dog, Brown, Is not the Chihuahua of his imagination. What a spoiled child! You've spent the whole book wanting a dog, and here you are, with a dog! And now you don't want it because its not the dog you wanted.
Ben even took the dog off the lead and told him to go because he didn't want him anymore - because he wasnt the marvelous Chicken-whatsits name.
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.
Oh alsooo, After he gets hit by a car, and flung into a van. His parents don't tell him off for walking into the road with his eyes closed. I'm also pretty sure if you broke like 3 ribs and as many bones as he did, he would NOT have recovered that quickly.
Overall, I enjoyed the beginning but honestly, to end the book with the main character being selfish, bratty, uncaring, snobby it just made me lose any sort of respect I had for him.
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.
I just can't deal with selfish people. There was no reason for him to be that way.
I had two main problems with this book
1. The dog wasn't real
2. Ben was such an awful character
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.
So this whole time the dog wasn't even real, so it didn't really mean anything because it was just imaginary.
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.
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.
THIS BIT CONTAINS SPOILERS
(This part talks about the last chapter and what happens in the end)
So in the last few chapters of this book Ben finally gets a dog from his grandparents, who's dog has had puppies. (He can get a dog now because his parents have convienetly moved into a flat where there is lots of green space)
But after Ben spends the WHOLE book doing literally nothing except thinking about a dog of his own. He cries because this new dog, Brown, Is not the Chihuahua of his imagination. What a spoiled child! You've spent the whole book wanting a dog, and here you are, with a dog! And now you don't want it because its not the dog you wanted.
Ben even took the dog off the lead and told him to go because he didn't want him anymore - because he wasnt the marvelous Chicken-whatsits name.
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.
Oh alsooo, After he gets hit by a car, and flung into a van. His parents don't tell him off for walking into the road with his eyes closed. I'm also pretty sure if you broke like 3 ribs and as many bones as he did, he would NOT have recovered that quickly.
Overall, I enjoyed the beginning but honestly, to end the book with the main character being selfish, bratty, uncaring, snobby it just made me lose any sort of respect I had for him.
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.
I just can't deal with selfish people. There was no reason for him to be that way.
August 10, 2023
This was an unfulfilling story. It's about a boy who wants a dog but can't have one because he lives in the city. So he starts imagining that he has a dog (a chihuahua, which was a rare and mostly-unknown breed back when this was published!). There is so little story here, I don't know how she got it published. Also Ben, our hero, is bland and uninteresting. Pearce even tells us how average he is. His family are also bland and stick rigidly to their gender roles, something I always find weird coming from female authors. There is a brief crossover with her earlier novel Minnow on the Say if you care about that sort of thing. At least THAT book had a treasure hunt. All we have in this book is a sulky boy with his eyes shut.
September 2, 2018
I recall now I did in fact read this book several years ago. Seeing the title clearly brought back memories of a beautiful little book. I read this of course as an adult and feel perhaps many lovely poignant stories such as this are wasted to a degree on the young. There is nothing wrong with cultivating and protecting the child within you, in fact I recommend it.
July 10, 2014
Wallowed in childhood nostalgia as I re-read this. I loved it just as much as when I read it as a child - and it still has the power to make me cry. An absolutely beautiful book with a powerful story about a child's imagination, longing, and disappointment.
May 31, 2019
A young boy living in London wants a dog so badly, but there's no space for one in the city. It becomes an obsession for him, one that leads to a scary-but-ultimately-okay accident, and then finally he gets his wish, although it doesn't turn out exactly as he had daydreamed it would.
I've really enjoyed all the other Pearce books I've read, but I struggled to finish this one, and at one point Ben (the boy) makes a decision so irritating (to me, at least) that I very nearly did give up on it. The characters are unlikeable (all but the grandfather, who's a delight), and Ben's pouting and obsessing over a dog quickly became tedious. So I was disappointed in this one, I'm afraid.
I've really enjoyed all the other Pearce books I've read, but I struggled to finish this one, and at one point Ben (the boy) makes a decision so irritating (to me, at least) that I very nearly did give up on it. The characters are unlikeable (all but the grandfather, who's a delight), and Ben's pouting and obsessing over a dog quickly became tedious. So I was disappointed in this one, I'm afraid.
February 29, 2016
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."
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!"
"'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
I could hardly put this book down and was thankful it was a youth's book and could be read in a short span of time.
Philippa Pearce also wrote 'Tom's Midnight Garden' (a family favourite that we own on book, audio book and even the film version) and 'The Minnow On The Say' (another book that I got lost in).
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!"
"'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
I could hardly put this book down and was thankful it was a youth's book and could be read in a short span of time.
Philippa Pearce also wrote 'Tom's Midnight Garden' (a family favourite that we own on book, audio book and even the film version) and 'The Minnow On The Say' (another book that I got lost in).
February 8, 2013
I remember this book very clearly from my childhood. I read it once and the story stuck with me, I tried for many years to find another copy of the book so that I could read it again but to no avail.
The other day I found it. The story remains captivating and charming even to an adult. The characters are well drawn - all flawed, some unpleasant but all doing their best to care for their family members.
The book teaches important lessons about acceptance and love without ever preaching and the story is engaging to the end.
The other day I found it. The story remains captivating and charming even to an adult. The characters are well drawn - all flawed, some unpleasant but all doing their best to care for their family members.
The book teaches important lessons about acceptance and love without ever preaching and the story is engaging to the end.
November 27, 2014
I wanted to like this book, indeed I expected to like this book. Ben is a young boy living in London who longs for a dog. But his family live in rather cramped conditions already and there's no easy solution. I didn't take to this book especially, although some parts were sweet. I was left incensed by the ending!
http://astrongbeliefinwicker.blogspot...
http://astrongbeliefinwicker.blogspot...
June 2, 2015
I don't suppose George Bernard Shaw ever got round to reading 'A Dog So Small' (being dead at the time it was first published is a reasonable excuse) but if he had, he'd have said, "There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it."
June 6, 2020
Read this in the 1970s while in Primary School, one of my favourite books as a child. Only just parted with it yesterday by putting it (2020) out into our little community library for some one else to love and inspire with a love of reading and imagination. I hope they too share it eventually 🥰
October 23, 2009
This book was just AMAZING, It was so heartbraking to finish it.
August 17, 2012
We read this as a class when I was about 10....I have never forgotten it, just a lovely book
May 26, 2013
Read and reread as a child and never fully understood. Read as an adult and swept away by its simple message of 'Be careful of what you wish for.'
September 15, 2014
Read this as a child, and loved it then. I can't think of another book that does a better job with the theme of 'wanting what you can't have'.
June 18, 2017
it was good book
July 9, 2023
A quick read and a classic among children’s books - the yearning for a dog is perhaps one of the most universal among kids, and this book captures that quite well.
August 20, 2023
Ben is keen for a dog and hopes that he'll get one for his Birthday after being promised one from his grandfather however when his birthday arrives he does not get the real thing but just a picture. When he realises he can't keep a dog in London he starts to create a dog so small that only he can see. That is when adventures begin.
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?
This was a story of a boy wanting his hearts desire however when the reality is not what he hoped for can he learn to live with what he ends up with?
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.
Did Ben accept Brown? you'll have to read the story to find out.
I liked the fact that the ending of the book was not all nicely tied up and stayed true to ben's uncertainty as a character. I remember reading this book as a teenager while at school and at the conclusion it stuck with me that things in life don't always occur the way we expect however it's only through my recent journey of personal development and a big change happening with one of the things i'm involved in made me want to pick up this book again as an adult as I was reminded of what it had taught me.
Ben was very self-centered as one of the reviews i've read on here states, however when we're children we're often that way specially when we want or think we want something so badly.
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?
This was a story of a boy wanting his hearts desire however when the reality is not what he hoped for can he learn to live with what he ends up with?
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.
Did Ben accept Brown? you'll have to read the story to find out.
I liked the fact that the ending of the book was not all nicely tied up and stayed true to ben's uncertainty as a character. I remember reading this book as a teenager while at school and at the conclusion it stuck with me that things in life don't always occur the way we expect however it's only through my recent journey of personal development and a big change happening with one of the things i'm involved in made me want to pick up this book again as an adult as I was reminded of what it had taught me.
Ben was very self-centered as one of the reviews i've read on here states, however when we're children we're often that way specially when we want or think we want something so badly.
May 28, 2017
I really wanted to like this and picked it up in my local library with every expectation that I would. I love Tom's Midnight Garden, rereading it regularly as a child, but this book just didn't capture that same magic.
I could really relate with Ben wanting a dog as I spent the first 12 years of my life in the same position ( finally succeeded when I persuaded my dad to go and look at a rescue pup being rehomed -love at first sight! The look on my mum's face when we got home said that the joint decision had been to say no! However that dog spent the next 18 years with us and was a truly-loved member of the family.)
I felt quite sorry for Ben's grandfather who clearly wanted to make his grandson happy but was constrained by circumstances. Ben's family obviously cared about him yet were dismissive of his feelings, which led to him feeling isolated and withdrawing into his own imaginative world. Ben's reaction, when finally getting his heart's desire, was selfish although perhaps not unrealistic. Many children who want pets see that animal as another toy they can pick up and play with when they want to, then are disappointed with the daily care and the fact that the animal might choose not to play with them.
Overall, a book I expected to love but just didn't.
I could really relate with Ben wanting a dog as I spent the first 12 years of my life in the same position ( finally succeeded when I persuaded my dad to go and look at a rescue pup being rehomed -love at first sight! The look on my mum's face when we got home said that the joint decision had been to say no! However that dog spent the next 18 years with us and was a truly-loved member of the family.)
I felt quite sorry for Ben's grandfather who clearly wanted to make his grandson happy but was constrained by circumstances. Ben's family obviously cared about him yet were dismissive of his feelings, which led to him feeling isolated and withdrawing into his own imaginative world. Ben's reaction, when finally getting his heart's desire, was selfish although perhaps not unrealistic. Many children who want pets see that animal as another toy they can pick up and play with when they want to, then are disappointed with the daily care and the fact that the animal might choose not to play with them.
Overall, a book I expected to love but just didn't.
August 11, 2025
Our protagonist desperately wants a dog, but has no room to keep one in his family's London flat; when he's promised one anyway, what he receives is a picture of a chihuahua, which inspires him to conjure an imaginary pet. Great premise, and, though we don't get a ton of the imaginary dog, the relationship between boy and dog, the evocation of loneliness and the idealized companion, is excruciatingly tender, personal, and relatable; this was me with cats, before I had cats, and you better believe I got emotional about it. It reminds me, unexpectedly, of Wyndham's Chocky: imaginary friend as plot, seen through the external repercussions of an inner subjective reality; the use of omniscient PoV is fascinating, affecting an occasional distance from a profoundly internal and intimate experience, almost like it's giving the reader some breathing room. This is also a relic of its time, a snapshot of animal caretaking and British society which hasn't aged with particular grace; this echoes in a didactic ending of questionable effectiveness, shunning the inner world for the compromises of a normalized external reality; but, you see, I was Ben, and was no compromise.
June 15, 2025
it's about a boy who wants a dog, but is denied one for a very good reason - London, or any city, where a dog cannot be allowed to run to it's hearts content without a leash, is no place for a dog. Ben understands the logic, but he still gets obsessive. He reads up about dogs, till he's exhausted the librarian. He gets himself a virtual dog in his head, which comes alive, as soon as he closes his eyes.
His obsession gets so bad that he wants to be with his little dog as much as possible, even in the middle of a road with oncoming traffic. At this point it gets bizzare. His obsession causes an accident, and everybody involved has escaped by the skin of their teeth. even Ben.
Now the logical thing would be for Ben to finally see sense. Instead, his family actually moves house, to somewhere, he can get his own puppy, which is conveniently available thanks to grandpa's dog having littered just then.
Best line in the book for me - "People get their heart's desire, and then they have to begin to learn how to live with it. "
my fav characters in the book was The grandma, and Bens dad, as the more practical ones!
His obsession gets so bad that he wants to be with his little dog as much as possible, even in the middle of a road with oncoming traffic. At this point it gets bizzare. His obsession causes an accident, and everybody involved has escaped by the skin of their teeth. even Ben.
Now the logical thing would be for Ben to finally see sense. Instead, his family actually moves house, to somewhere, he can get his own puppy, which is conveniently available thanks to grandpa's dog having littered just then.
Best line in the book for me - "People get their heart's desire, and then they have to begin to learn how to live with it. "
my fav characters in the book was The grandma, and Bens dad, as the more practical ones!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2018
Ben wants a dog, he has lived and dreamed of one for his birthday so long from his grandparents but instead he gets a picture of a dog so in desperation and disappointment he conjures an imaginary dog named Chiquitito until it becomes his consuming obsession, seeing this dog everywhere.
Suddenly one day his dream might be within his grasp but when you have your heart's desire is it always truly what we want? If it isn't how do we learn to live with it?
Suddenly one day his dream might be within his grasp but when you have your heart's desire is it always truly what we want? If it isn't how do we learn to live with it?
August 20, 2020
This is a tale told of Ben, an 11 (?)-year-0ld English boy with a little too much imagination for his own good. Through the story of Ben's longing for a dog, the author has presented a vivid and accurate account of being a child in the early 1960s. Not to be missed! Absolutely right for the age group and its parents. The first-edition line drawings by Antony Maitland are good too.
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August 30, 2023I remember borrowing this book from my school library in year 4/5 and OMG wtfff. I think about it to this DAY.
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