Black Dog by Christobel Mattingley illustrated by Craig Smith

Tuesday Treasure

Here we have another of my Tuesday Treasures. I adore this book for so many reasons. Begin with the front cover which stretches out to show the whole class of 28 kids with oddly similar faces yet all so individual.

Kerry arrives at a new school. Her old school was small and familiar. Now she is faced with huge numbers of children and a huge set of buildings:

"It was three storey's high.
There were many flights of stairs
and long passages with dozens of doors."

Kerry only just copes with all the strangeness of the new class and teacher. I love the moment when things calm down for her after the class go to the library. Kerry finds her old friends Winnie the Pooh, Madeline, Babar and Ping. She settles down and becomes so absorbed she doesn't hear the class leave. The librarian eventually discovers Kerry surrounded by books in the reading corner.  She sends her back to class with a book but Kerry does not know the way. Kerry is terrified of dogs and so when one appears in the empty school corridor she shakes with fear but Black Dog is a friendly dog. He only wants to show Kerry the way. It almost feels as though he is rounding her up like the cattle or sheep. Eventually Kerry finds her way back to her new teacher and Miss Bell explains:

"I thought you might be lost. It's such a big school. ...  But Black Dog has found you. ... he should not be at school, but he is always so lonely at home by himself on the first day after the holidays. He follows me to school. ... He likes making new friends."

Craig Smith has long been a favourite illustrator of mine. This is one of his earliest books published in 1979 and his style was different back then from books he has produced recently. Craig has been illustrating books for forty years. I am again going to say I am very sad this book has been recently culled from my former school library - it truly is a book to treasure and this book is also an essential text for teaches who want to study the work of an Australian illustrator such as the very talented Craig Smith.

Compare Craig's style above with the covers and pages from Craig's newest books:

A Cat Called Trim

Here is a set of teaching ideas for Black Dog.  You might find Black Dog in a school library in a different format - First Friend - an Aussie Nibble. You can listen to an audio sample here. It is interesting to compare this with the original - there are some tiny text changes for example desks are now tables, maths rods (cuisenaire) are now counters, the sound of pianos changes into recorders and sewing machines are now computers! I need to see this Nibble edition to check if the wonderful illustrations by Craig Smith were used.

I would pair Black Dog with Misty by Christine Dencer.

I plan to explore some other older books illustrated by Craig Smith over the coming months including Whistle up the Chimney (Nan Hunt), Dreadful David (Sally Odgers) and My Dog's a Scaredy cat (Duncan Ball).  Other books from Craig that I have enjoyed sharing with children are Bob the Builder and the Elves (Emily Rodda), Crumbs (Emily Rodda), Pilchards in Tomato Sauce (Alison Stewart), Billy the Punk (Jessica Carroll), Bungawitta (Emily Rodda) and Marty and Mei Ling (Phil Cummings).