A doggone smart canine
Journalist-turned-awardwinning-children’s book author Ross Welford likes to take characters, often the not-so-cool kids from not-so-cool places, put them in odd situations and then explore some of life’s big questions in a way that amuses, intrigues and provokes young readers.
He’s on form in his latest book, The Dog Who Saved The World. Georgie and her friend Ramzy, two tweenaged outsiders who’ve already dealt with their fair share of trauma, meet the enigmatic Dr Pretorius on the beach when Georgie’s beloved dog, Mister
Mash, eats the retired scientist’s swimming cap.
After chastising the children, Dr Pretorius invites them to her laboratory/studio on the Whitley Bay seafront, where she claims to have created a Virtual Reality machine that can catapult them into a VR 3-D version of the future. Ignoring all warnings about going off with strangers, Georgie and Ramzy are soon caught up in Dr Pretorius’ schemes and dreams and only too willing to become guinea pigs in her experiments.
Bubbling away, though, is a far more urgent situation: a highly contagious disease which threatens to kill all dogs and a goodly number of humans, changing the world as we know it forever.
When Mister Mash gets sick, Georgie ropes Ramzy into a daring and desperate quest to, well, save the world.
They start with the gross-out rescue of Mister Mash and then tackle the tough stuff: saving humanity without leaving Dr Pretorius’ lab. It’s adventurous, adrenalin-pumping stuff that could frighten the bejabers out of some kids but Welford writes with humour and heart so that rather than curling up under the covers, you want to turn the next page and find out What Happens Next.
Initially Miss Nine wasn’t overly gripped by the story but around chapters nine-13, became a little more invested in it (dying animals, never humans, can prompt that response) then spent the next few nights avidly reading into the wee small hours.
If Welford wants his young fans to think and talk about what they might do in a similar — albeit unlikely — situation and to reflect on what’s important to them, he succeeded here. Intense discussions took place in our house about how you might save the world using science and technology. Is it better to go forward or back? Risk all or be cautious?
Toward the end of the story, Welford refers to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books. It’s fun to compare and contrast this — after all, there’s a dog as one of the central characters — with Blyton’s adventure series, but Welford’s is far smarter, funnier and thought-provoking.
Our favourite chapter book for 2019.
So far.