My son is terrified of dogs! Which children's books will help?

From Hairy Mclary to Spot, children’s books are full of irresistible canines, Julia Eccleshare sniffs out the best books on dogs to help a boy get over his dog fears

Woof! Emily Gravett’s modern day classic Dogs offers such a choice of dogs that it could make even real dogs seem less of a threat. Photograph: MacMillan

Julia Eccleshare

Monday 19 January 2015 - The Guardian

My son is terrified of dogs. All real dogs – even those whose owners say they are friendly – act in very unpredictable ways which surprise and upset him. Are there any irresistible dogs in picture books?

Dogs on the page have the great advantage of remaining both silent and still! And they can very easily be made to look cute, cuddly and entirely manageable – quite different from all real life dogs, as you say.

Even when they behave more boisterously on the page as in Lynley Dodd’s Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy in which Hairy Maclary leads his bouncy doggy friends on a walk in the park in which all goes well until they meet the terrifying Scarface Claw, the most vicious tomcat in town, they remain at a safe distance.
For a calmer introduction to dogs and how they behave, Spot, the eponymous star of Eric Hill’s classic Where’s Spot? is the perfect introduction. Spot has the great advantage of behaving as much like a small child as a dog. For a start, all of the action takes place indoors so there is no chance of rolling in mud or larking about with other dogs or, the thing to be so feared, jumping up on a child! Instead, as revealed by the lifting of a number of simple flaps, Spot plays hide and seek around the furniture with his mother Sally. Every time Spot is not in one of the hiding places, an animal friend of his is. Spot is as calm and quiet a puppy as anyone can hope for. And the soft toy versions of Spot are also delightful.

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The importance of a toy dog in a child’s life is expressed at is best in Shirley Hughes’s classic picture book Dogger, the story of Dave who loses his beloved Dogger only to find him on a stall at the fete. Dave must get him back but will he be able to buy Dogger before anyone else? 
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