By Jackie Morris (author) , Cathy Fisher (illustrator)
"A new puppy explores her natural world and bonds with her new family."
Hardback In Stock £14.99 £13.49
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June 2025 Picture Book of the Month
This is in every sense of the word an utterly beautiful book, not just for the breathtaking, luminous pictures or the lyrical, evocative words, but also as a physical object; the size and feel and the paper quality. It is a book which is so nice to hold and touch and that little hands will want to stroke.
This book tells the story of Rosie, a real dog belonging to the author’s daughter and her first summer at their home in Pembrokeshire. The illustrator also lives in Pembrokeshire and one gets the distinct impression that this was very much a labour of love for them both, in the way that they capture the beauty of the countryside, with the sea nearby.
Fields, woods and the beach are all explored with her child owner as Rosie grows, and the changing seasons are atmospherically depicted as summer moves on into autumn and the start of winter. It is such a gorgeous representation of the loving relationship between the child and the dog that it perhaps ought to carry a health warning.
Beware this book will increase demands to have a puppy of your own! But it will also encourage everyone to get out into the countryside and to appreciate the natural world and that is extremely healthy!
Children will be entranced by the mellifluous words and immerse themselves in the images.
"Born at the very start of the summer, so small she could rest easily in the cupped hands of a child …"
Read the full description
From a little furry bundle, Rosie the puppy grows, learns, and explores her world - rose petals, spiders and butterflies in the garden, the jungle of long summer grass, the fields where a fox calls, the beach where she chases waves and digs deep in the sand.
Warmly and lovingly, Rosie's first summer is recreated in Jackie Morris's poetic words and Cathy Fisher's unforgettable images.
Rich in the sense of discovery, rich too in the love between puppy and child, here is a timeless country idyll for all ages.
Jackie Morris is a bestselling writer and artist. Her almost uncanny ability to draw and paint living landscapes and wildlife began around the age of six when she watched her father draw a lapwing and wanted to learn the same magic. Born in Birmingham, she grew up in Evesham, but has lived for a long time in Wales, in “a small cottage held together by spiders’ webs”.
As a writer and illustrator she has many books to her name; of which The Lost Words , in collaboration with Robert Macfarlane, is the best known. For Otter-Barry Books she has written, among others, the three much-loved Mrs Noah books , The Jackie Morris Book of Classic Nursery Rhymes and Something About a Bear .
Her internationally bestselling picture books for Frances Lincoln are Ted Hughes’ How the Whale Became ; Mariana and the Merchild; The Snow Leopard; Can You See a Little Bear?; The Snow Whale; Lord of the Forest; as well as those she has both written and illustrated , The Seal Children; The Time of the Lion; Little One We Knew You’d Come; Tell Me a Dragon; The Cat and the Fiddle: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes; The Ice Bear . She has also written and illustrated a critically acclaimed novel for older children, East of the Sun, West of the Moon .
In 2019 she won the Kate Greenaway Medal for her illustration of The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane . In her acceptance speech, Jackie Morris, said: “The times ahead are challenging. It seems to me that artists, writers, musicians have one job at the moment – to help to tell the truth about what is happening to this small and fragile world we inhabit, to re-engage with the natural world, to inspire and to imagine better ways to live. Because there is no Planet B and we are at a turning point. And because in order to make anything happen it first needs to be imagined. And as writers and illustrators for children we grow the readers and thinkers of the future.
“I’m learning so much as I watch our young people call politicians to account. Together we can make a change. And we must. While politicians nod and pretend to listen to Greta Thunberg, declare Climate Emergencies, then continue with ‘business as usual’ finding money always for bombs and seldom for books we need to stand beside these children and hold our deceitful leaders to account.”
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Warmly and lovingly, Rosie's first summer is recreated in Jackie Morris's poetic words and Cathy Fisher's unforgettable images. Rich in the sense of discovery, rich too in the love between puppy and child, here is a timeless country idyll for all ages.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Summer Puppy and determined it is suitable for children aged 3-6 years old
The Summer Puppy features in the following genres: Featured Books for 3+ readers, Featured Books for 5+ readers, Books of the Month, Recommendations, Star Books, Animal Stories, Gift Books, Picture storybooks, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Children’s picture books, Children’s: picture books, activity books, early learning concepts, Children’s / Teenage stationery and miscellaneous items
Hardback. £13.49, down from the £14.99 cover price. In Stock.
The Summer Puppy was written by Jackie Morris and published by Otter-Barry Books an imprint of Otter-Barry Books Limited
The Summer Puppy has 40 pages
£13.49, reduced from £14.99. In Stock.
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