I’ve been gorging on sweet dog stories for a while. Or so it seems. Hot on the tails of Oliver and ‘his’ Barclay in Too Small to Fail we meet Hal and Fleck in Eva Ibbotson’s last book. Both boys have dreadful parents, rich and with no clue as to what their sons really need. And it’s not more of the latest toys, nor is it to spend time with housekeepers.
They need their dogs. The dogs they have fallen hopelessly in love with. Dogs that are equally potty about their boys.
But the adults rule, especially when they have too much money. Hal’s parents strike me more as charicatures. In fact, the whole book is more of a story story, but it’s one of the best. I’m not sure when it’s set. It’s sort of a mix of now and then and never.
There isn’t just the one dog, either. Fleck has friends at the Easy Pets Dog Agency, and they too need a happy end. And let’s face it, even if Hal’s parents could learn to see sense, they would never take on five dogs of varying sizes.
Unlike Oliver, Hal quickly realises that his parents really have gone too far when they rent a dog for him for the weekend, and then return it, believing he will soon tire of Fleck. So he takes action, but only after thinking things through carefully.
I don’t want to give anything away, but there are several nice girls who all love dogs, and there are some very nice and sensible adults. And because this is an Eva Ibbotson story things sort themselves out. It took me a while to work out how she was going to do it, and when it happened it was even lovelier than expected.
After a book like this I could even half want a dog.
(Irresistible doggie pictures by Sharon Rentta.)
The Occasional Bookwitch 
Your recommendations are making my t.b.r. pile very high! Not that I’m moaning. I read Too Small To Fail this week and loved it. I’ll add this to my list now…
I sometimes hate it when I get reliably good recommendations. It’s so hard to cope, and much easier to tell someone that you don’t think it’s ‘quite you.’