Dog Friday was just what I needed to get out of a recent book slump. I have a few authors I know I can count on, and Hilary McKay is one of them. If I need a guaranteed winner, she's on the list.

Up until now, I had only read books about the wacky and delightful Casson family. This sweet story is about boy who, while trying to overcome a fear of dogs, finds a stray and falls in love. During an agonizing week of waiting to see if the dog is claimed, Robin's wild and crazy neighbors keep him and his mother busy by coming up with one harebrained scheme after another.

Hilary McKay's writing is joyous, no matter what story she's telling. I can't help but gush when I recommend her. ( )

To start with, I have never read a book that was so NOT what the book cover, the tag line, and the blurb suggested that it was. The dog of the title, "Dog Friday," perhaps appears in about six pages of the book. The tagline, "Can Robin save the dog that needs him so badly?" is almost 100% irrelevant. The blurb describes how Robin was once attacked by a dog and is having trouble getting over his fear, but now there's a dog that needs him...
None of this dog business matters. Here is what the blurb should have said about this extremely funny book:
Robin has a dull life living with his mother, who runs a Bed & Breakfast in her run down family estate, renting half of the building to another family. When the Robinsons, with their four rather eccentric children move into the other side, the lives of Robin and his mother become far more interesting and unpredictable.
Robin, supposedly the main character, is rather dull. But the four Robinson children, Peregrine (Perry), Antoinette (Ant), Beany and Sun Dance, are all hilarious. It almost feels as though the author realized partway into her book that these four children would be the stars, and so she focused much of the book on them, rather than Robin and his dog.
Much of this book is laugh-out-loud funny, even though the book cover doesn't even remotely suggest a humorous novel. ( )

Good despite the ugly and dated cover

library copy ( )

Robin had a very bad experience with a dog. After a nasty period in hospital he lives in fear of dogs, and is quite lonely, until a new family move in next-door. There are twins around his age, a small and independent sister called Beany, and a brother called Sun Dance who evidently has some kind of learning problem, but it’s not spelled out what it is.

It’s not a long story, and is mainly character-based, so there’s not any single plot, or mystery, or indeed anything much going on other than Robin’s gradual friendship developing, and losing his fear of dogs. The family next door are, as so many of this author’s are, quite chaotic and very active, yet loyal to each other, deep down. I didn’t find myself caught up with them as I did in the series about the Casson family, but it made enjoyable reading.

Recommended for anyone over the age of about eight; there’s a tense and potentially scary scene towards the end which might frighten a younger child, and discussion of one or two sensitive issues in passing. But overall I liked it very much. I’d give three and a half stars if I could. ( )

This was a fun story, and I especially enjoyed the relationship between Robin and his mother. There were some excellent characters - Dan the bully who wasn't so bad, the all of the chaos-causing Robinson kids. But the story focus shifted around suddenly from Robin's fear of dogs, and then his wish to keep his stray Dog Friday, Robin mother trying to keep customers at her B+B, the Robinson kids trying to entertain themselves, and Sun Dance trying dealing with his bully. That is a lot of action for such a short book, and each storyline could have been a book on its own. I felt a bit frantic whipping from one plot to another.
Of the three covers LibraryThing shows, my favourite is the one on my book, by Gail Piazza. For some reason the soft, very realistic image grabbed me, and pulled this book to the top of my pile. It reminds me of a common cover style from when I was much younger. ( )