Black Dog

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I do get a bit tired of the clever child/ silly adult storyline, I think this is patronising to children and misleading, they do need to listen to adults sometimes, especially in dangerous situations. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.

Black Dog' was a delight, and a beautiful picture-book that I plan to share with children in the future. This poignant story by author-illustrator Levi Pinfold won the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and provides the perfect springboard for discussing children’s fears and how to confront them. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. An enormous black dog and a very tiny little girl star in this offbeat tale about confronting one’s fears.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. I was putting on his British-Harry Potter Dobby voice while reading this and my sister loved it so much she made me read the book 3 more times to her. As this is a book aimed at small children I wasn't sure this was an altogether good message, there's a massive dog that everyone is scared of so you could be seen as a hero to go and make friends with it? Finally, back to the size of a normal hound, the Black Dog is welcomed into the Hope household as their newest addition.

The underlying emotional message about confronting your fears is so skilfully and entertainingly conveyed that this stunningly illustrated book works on a very deep level as well as being a reassuring bedtime read. Actually, I’d recommend this mostly to dog lovers, many of all ages who might find this book humorous, although I suppose it could make for a good read or gift for anyone about to embark on a new endeavor or change they might find scary and might need or want to face. The author wrote and illustrated this ingenious book portraying the ideal of fear from various perspectives.

Levi has won a number of awards, including the BookTrust New Illustrator Award, the Kate Greenaway medal and the UKLA Picture Book Award. Levi grew up on Roald Dahl and Morris Sendak, John Burningham, Pat Hutchins, and was obsessed with Clocks, Clocks and More Clocks. The illustration is amazing, which is to be expected in any book that wins the CILIP_Kate Greenaway Medal. Former Best New Illustrator Levi Pinfold's beautiful, stylised illustrations work to great effect in this stunning picture book about the nature of fear and the power of our imaginations. Most of the two-page spreads have a full page of color illustrations, paired with smaller, sepia-toned pictures that frame the narrative.

But really, for us, the story was about the sweet collection we can have with animals, especially animals in need. Each family member in this tale looks outside and sees a black dog that gets bigger and bigger as their fear of it increases. A family of furry animals grow too big for their home in an old mattress and have to go out into the unknown world of the back yard to find a new one. I confess to a great deal of sentimentality here: my two beloved 100+ pound black dogs are no longer with me, but when they were still alive, they definitely frightened people. Warm colors for the interiors help convey the coziness and safety of the house and family contrasted with the starker colors of the cold, snowy outside.From a young age he loved books and comics and spent many of his days drawing and writing his own stories. What shone here for me were the unique and lush illustrations, both the large and colorful ones and the miniature gray tone ones. Beautifully illustrated, a delight to roam around the details of each scene and a really nice story too - I don't want to give a lame summary but it was a very pleasing metaphor for how your fears can distort reality but how this can be overcome by facing them.

The dog in this story is beautifully observed and the ramshackle gothic house was imaginatively depicted. So much to explore, so many details, in the illustrations from the small panels on each of the two-page spreads to the large color illustration (except for when Small first meets the Black Dog, which of course needs to dominate the two pages).Panic and anxiety can be so easy to spread, especially when (as it was in the Hope family) the true circumstances have been distorted.