My dog Sunday by Leila Berg

This is a little old book (1968) which I have kept on my shelf for many years and even after several house moves when I needed to cull out my book collection I have held onto this one. Now I know why. If you have read my review of One dog and his Boy by Eva Ibbotson you will know I am a big fan of dog books. In this slim junior novel by Leila Berg we have three children, Kathy, Ben and Jimmy who live in small flat with a policy of no dogs.

As the story opens we see Kathy kicking a ball in a rather strange way. This is because she is pretending the ball is in fact a dog. These three children long for a dog of their own. As they walk past the Battersea dogs home Ben decides to take a risk and try to claim a dog as their own. Unfortunately the plan fails miserably. The children arrive at the park to meet their older sister and all are feeling sad and dejected. Then along comes a lovely huge Old English Sheepdog and he is ready to play and be their friend and for a few glorious hours these children have a dog. In the late afternoon the dogs owners arrive. They are happy ‘Sunday’ has found some children to play with and they promise to return to the park again next Sunday.

Here is an interview with the author. My copy of this book has quite a different cover but this was the only one I could find. After reading this little book, if you can find a copy, you might look for other old books about dogs such as Desperate for a Dog by Rose Impey and A dog so small by Philippa Pearce. Also take a look at the two Nibbles I reviewed last year.