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tashrow's review
4.0
When the Hope family woke up one morning there was a great big black dog outside. Mr. Hope thought it was the size of a tiger and called the police who advised him to just stay inside. Mrs. Hope compared it to an elephant and the family shut the lights off so it wouldn’t know they were there. Adeline woke up and saw a black dog the size of a T-Rex outside the window. She closed the curtains. Maurice woke up and thought it was the size of a Big Jeffy, deciding to stay under the covers. But the littlest member of the family, Small, headed outside to meet the dog. The dog was huge, the size of a house, and Small knew it could eat her up. She ran off, telling the dog that it would just have to shrink to follow her. As she ran, the dog got smaller and smaller, until it was able to fit into the house through the cat flap in the door. That’s when the rest of the family realized that they had been very silly to be that worried about such a small black dog.
Pinfold manages to capture a certain quirkiness that creates a unique look and feel for this book. His text builds the tension very high by the time that Small heads outside. The frenzy of the other characters puts Small’s reaction in stark relief, making it all the more brave and amazing. Her approach to the enormous dog is also wonderfully strange, running from it and having it shrink to follow her. It makes a delicious sort of sense while you are wrapped in the spell that this book weaves.
The art is exceptional, filled with tiny details. Pinfold has offered both smaller sepia toned illustrations that show the outside of the house and the continued reaction of the family, and also larger colorful images that add to the unusual feel of the book. The size of the dog that Small confronts is astounding. His eyes alone are her size, his nose the size of a car. Breathtaking.
Highly recommended, this book is an unusual but very successful book. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Pinfold manages to capture a certain quirkiness that creates a unique look and feel for this book. His text builds the tension very high by the time that Small heads outside. The frenzy of the other characters puts Small’s reaction in stark relief, making it all the more brave and amazing. Her approach to the enormous dog is also wonderfully strange, running from it and having it shrink to follow her. It makes a delicious sort of sense while you are wrapped in the spell that this book weaves.
The art is exceptional, filled with tiny details. Pinfold has offered both smaller sepia toned illustrations that show the outside of the house and the continued reaction of the family, and also larger colorful images that add to the unusual feel of the book. The size of the dog that Small confronts is astounding. His eyes alone are her size, his nose the size of a car. Breathtaking.
Highly recommended, this book is an unusual but very successful book. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
brucefarrar's review
5.0
A large black dog appears outside the Hope family house in the woods one snowy morning. Mr. Hope the first to see it is so alarmed that he drops his breakfast (much to the delight of the family cats) on the floor and shouts that he calls the police to tell them that it’s as big as a tiger! Next Mrs. Hope sees it out the window and proclaims it to be the size of an elephant. As the older Hope children awake, the dog gets bigger and bigger until the whole family is cringing under the covers in fear. The one small exception to the general panic is “the youngest member of the Hope family, called Small (for short).” Small Hope bundles herself up in her winter ware and boldly steps outside to confront the Black Dog, who is the illustration has indeed grown to enormous proportions. She then leads it on a playful chase through the snowy landscape taunting it “'You can’t follow where I go, unless you shrink, or don’t you know?'” And after leading it on a chase through the woods, across a frozen pond, and though a playground, she leads it back home. By now, the dog has shrunk to size so small that it can follow Small through the cat flap on the front door. Small claps a laundry basket atop the now dog sized former monster and presents it triumphantly to her relieved family.
Pinfold’s tempera paintings are filled with delightful details, to be discovered on rereading, for which there are sure to many demands from young listeners. There’s also a delightful contrast between the cool outdoor colors and the warm tomes inside the house.
Pinfold’s tempera paintings are filled with delightful details, to be discovered on rereading, for which there are sure to many demands from young listeners. There’s also a delightful contrast between the cool outdoor colors and the warm tomes inside the house.
ellielabbett's review
4.0
An intricate insight into human instinct when it meets something unusual, to react with fear and distort the reality beyond proportion, or to bravely investigate the source. Some very interesting use of physical perspective used to illustrate internal feelings, and the process of a problem escalating out of control.
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