posted on 01 Dec 2022

My Dog, Hen by David Mackintosh

I risk outraging readers of this review by confessing that I’m not a dog lover – their charms, so utterly convincing to them, have always passed me by. But even I can appreciate what a charming picture book David Mackintosh has created.

Hen is the name given to the scrap of a rescue dog that goes home from the shelter with his new owner, a young boy and his family:

“The girl at the shelter says Hen is part one kind of dog and part another, but I can’t remember which dogs.

To me Hen’s just Hen. We take him home in a cardboard box that used to be used for cereal.”

The nervous little dog takes a while to settle in – at first he’s reluctant to come out of the cardboard box he travelled to his new home in – but soon he’s out and trying to eat everything in sight.

“He even tries to eat the good table that we only use for visitors.”

Maybe what Hen needs are some special dog toys? But when the young lad gets them, he eats those too. And then he eats the replacements. And then he eats the toys guaranteed to be indestructible.

Mom & Dad call a halt to the spending of more money on toys and the little boy has to turn to his Gran:

“So, I call my gran because Gran doesn’t make a fuss about anything.”

And it seems that Gran may have a unique solution for Hen – a monster toy made by recycling all the ones he’s chewed and destroyed.

Hen sniffs and chews the new monster toy but can’t rip this handmade plaything apart. Gran stays for tea that night and tells the little boy about how important and useful it is to recycle and mend old things rather than keep buying new ones.

Soon Hen is growing into an adult dog, he stops eating everything and stops pulling on his lead. He’s happy now in his new home with his monster toy always with him.

Writing about his approach to how he has drawn his striking and engaging book, Mackintosh tells us:

“The illustrations are made using pen, watercolour, ink, oil pencil and kraft paper. Then they are separated into four plates based on the spot inks I’m using. The inks overprint and knock-out each other depending on the desired effect. Originally, the book was designed to be in two inks but Prestel suggested four, so we added two. “

The book is published by Prestel and you will be able to order it from your local independent bookshop if they don’t have it in stock.

Click on this link to watch a clip showing the author at work and hear him talking about this book.

 

Terry Potter

December 2022