Nana's Book Library

• Age: 3+
• Particulars (Out of 5):  
  • Cutest dog ever: *****  
  • Inappropriate language:  None.
  • Sexual references:  None.   

Reminder: Nana’s Books are rated G.  Anyone could read them, or listen to them being read aloud.

This book is a crowd pleaser, widely loved by my children and grandchildren.  It’s a gripper, too, starting with action and a compelling plot:  “In the back of a dogcatcher’s truck sat a little white dog nobody wanted.”  Oh, no!  Poor McDuff!  He looks so little and sweet!  And then:  “Thump!  Went the truck over a bump in the road.  The little dog popped out into the night.”  McDuff is on the move – but where should he go?  He lands in a bed of pink tulips.  “He did not know where he was.”  But McDuff doesn’t just sit there:  he’s a dog of action!  Make your destiny, McDuff!  “He needed something to eat.  He needed a warm place to sleep.  So he went looking.”

            It goes without saying that McDuff also needed something much more:  a home where he is loved.  He starts going from house to house, and he is clearly not welcomed by the animals he encounters – a dog who growls, a cat who hisses, and owls who hoot.  It starts to rain, and things look pretty sad for McDuff – but just then, the rain stops, the moon comes out, and outside number seven Elm Road, McDuff smells vanilla rice pudding and sausages!  He barks, and Fred and Lucy invite him in.  They feed him and give him a bath… and then get in the car to take him back to the dog pound.

            But wait!  They don’t want to take him back!  They want him to stay!  They celebrate with hot chocolate and shortbread cookies (how McDuff gets his name) and when they all go to sleep, Lucy and Fred are holding hands, and with his other hand, Fred is holding McDuff’s paw!  The book ends with the best line ever:  “’How happy we are!’ they said in their dreams.”

This book is widely available new and used, paperback and hardcover on Amazon.  It is also available on eBay and Abebooks.   

©Janet Farrar Worthington

Note:  I am an Amazon affiliate, so if you do click a link and buy a book, I will theoretically make a small amount of money, but I’m just starting this thing, so I don’t even know how that works.   Still, full disclosure, etc.