My Dog's a Scaredy-cat by Duncan Ball illustrated by Craig Smith

Tuesday Treasure

This is one of those splendid books where the illustrator, Craig Smith, shows his brilliant imagination. He gives us rich scenes of daily life from the past inspired by seemingly simple words.

Here are the first few lines:

"My dog Stanley is the biggest dog on our street. He's a good dog and he's almost an old as I am. But my dog Stanley is a scaredy-cat."

Then comes a list of all the things Stanley is scared of - other dogs, bees, birds, butterflies, cars, water, bridges, and of course cats!  His owner wishes Stanley was brave. Brave as a lion, an elephant, a rhinoceros and a dragon. Of course this doesn't really matter at all

"Because Stanley is my dog and he loves me and I love him too."

Now onto the illustrations. The setting is the 1950s or 1960s in a small town (I think this is in South Australia where Craig grew up) with a special old time corner store. Stanley's owner is sent on a errand by his mum, or perhaps this is a neighbour, to go to the corner store and buy bread and two bottles of milk. On the way the boy sees some men painting and repairing a house and some other men moving a huge piano. It takes ages to get Stanley down to the store because everything is so frightening and, oh no, when they finally arrive the store is closed, perhaps for lunch.

The boy and his dog sit outside in the sunshine. When the pair finally do get inside we see a delightful array of sweets and other goods. You might notice the string bag used by the boy to carry the shopping. When he returns it only contains one bottle of milk. It is also interesting to note the Rosella tomato sauce sign, and the funny newspaper headline - "Rich get richer."

I adore My Dog's a Scaredy-Cat. It is a book to share side by side with a young child. You could also use this book for a school unit on life in the past.   Art students might like to compare the illustrations in My Dog's a Scaredy-Cat with another fabulous book illustrated by Craig Smith - Dreadful David.

I am so very disappointed to discover this is yet another treasure that has been disposed of from my previous library. My Dog's a Scaredy-Cat (1987) is sadly long out of print but I found a copy (2015) in mint condition at a recent charity book sale. This is a book to treasure.

Here is a quote from the late Maurice Saxby in his book Proof of the Puddin;

"A combination of subtle humour, childhood fantasy and a warm, loving relationship between a boy and his dog, along with a happy marriage of text and illustrations, make Duncan Ball's My dog's a Scaredy-Cat, illustrated by Craig Smith, one of the most appealing and successful pre-school picture books."

Magpies review (1988) by Joan Zahnleiter "This delightful book is a splendid example of the integration of text and illustration to form a satisfying whole."