posted on 13 Jan 2025

Invisible Dogs by Ruby Wright

I was pleased to receive a review copy of a second picture book by this talented author illustrator as I very much enjoyed the first one .

Acknowledging the rich imaginative world of young children made me remember a walk in the park in the company of several lively (totally imaginary) dogs with my granddaughter, who only has, in fact, one pet cat. In her fantasy world we even had to plan where they were all going to sleep that night and I helped her to check on them in the morning, only to find that one had given birth to six puppies!

This engaging story by Ruby Wright explores the warm relationship between Ida and her Grandpa, who loves playing pretend games. One of the underlying themes is to help Ida develop confidence at school. Although she is very noisy at home, she presents a much quieter side to her personality and her shyness makes it difficult to make friends. The first pages show her standing alone in what looks like a very exciting playground. She likes her teacher, Mr Shah but is clearly finding it difficult to join in with the games which seem ‘too strange and noisy.’ When she gets home, she soon cheers up playing her favourite game of invisible shops with Grandpa. The shop sells pretty much everything the heart could desire including cakes, roller skates, and a tropical island for Ida and apples, a flashy motorbike and new hair for bald Grandpa. I can see how this game could inspire lots more creative ideas in a classroom with young children. 

Despite having such good fun at home, the thought of another day at school looms for Ida. Good old Grandpa comes up with the excellent idea of finding an invisible pet from Invisible Pet Rescue to keep her company the next day. She eventually decides on rehoming two dogs and explains a bit more about them to mum at breakfast:

‘Sausage is a sausage dog with velvety ears and Fluffy is fluffy and white and sometimes I put her hair up …’

They prove to be quite demanding pets but really like playing fetch with their invisible ball in the playground. Unfortunately, Fluffy runs off before going back into class but nevertheless she and Sausage manage to join in with writing and singing. At lunchtime they race back to the playground and look everywhere with no success. At long last they find him ‘messing about with an invisible chicken’ who turns out to belong to a boy called Musa.  Together, they are inspired to play an invisible pet re homing game with the other children which proves to be very popular. At home time several of them are accompanied by animals that include a rabbit and a hedgehog. Again, I look forward to finding out which other imaginary pets might be chosen by children when I share this story.   

I strongly recommend this unusual picture book and particularly loved the dramatic illustrations with the clever use of neon pink pantone ink throughout to bring the invisible world to life. Published by Rocket Bird Books and guided for children aged 2+, this special picture book can be obtained from your local independent bookshop, who will order it for you if they don’t have a copy on the shelf. 

Karen Argent

January 2025