The mood of a dismal English day is spectacularly captured by Prendergast’s subtle illustration. A man leaves his caravan in the morning, dog in tow, to go and work on the building site nearby. He chats to the lady who runs the snack van. As the two humans chat and go about their day, the dog realises something is wrong — a dog is stuck in the river. The three characters go to the aid of the dog and solve the problem after using the building machinery to rescue the dog. This is a sophisticated visual narrative that warrants a complex co-constructed dialogue on top of the visual sequence; within its pages, various themes are concealed: in particular, housing and shelter as shared inheritances, but also affective themes: empathy. The picturebook will enable children to consider the use of the wordless form to tell more traditionally narrative adventures. This work follows Prendergast’s second book, Dog on a Train — the pair are totally separate stories.
