Dogger

the much-loved children’s classic

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Summary

Everywhere Dave goes, his favourite toy, Dogger, is ALWAYS with him.

So, when Dogger goes missing, Dave is devastated. Luckily, Dogger turns up at the school summer fair, but when he ends up at the toy stall, Dave must find a way to buy his best friend back.

With a heart warming message and delightful illustrations, Dogger has delighted children for generations. This gentle bedtime story is perfect for young readers.

"For a blast of pure nostalgia, look no further than Dogger. This timeless classic tells the tale of the love a little boy, Dave, has for his teddy. The illustrations are wonderfully warm, and the language and turn of phrase is like a big hug in story form" - The Evening Standard

Loved Dogger? Discover:
Lucy and Tom at the Seaside
Lucy and Tom at School
Alfie Gives a Hand
The Lion and the Unicorn

Reviews

This is Hughes' most heartwarming picture book . . . Hughes has a kindly, inexhaustible eye - she misses nothing . . . Her drawing is invariably superb and usually describes a reassuring world for chidlren - sometimes happier-than-thou. She has illustrated more than 200 titles - she is a virtuoso
Observer

About the author

Shirley Hughes

Shirley Hughes illustrated more than 200 children's books and is one of the best-loved writers for children, known for her beloved classics including the Alfie and Annie Rose stories, and Dogger.

Shirley Hughes was born in West Kirby, near Liverpool, in 1927, and studied fashion and dress design at Liverpool Art School, before continuing her studies at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford. She started her career as a freelance illustrator in London, illustrating other writers' work, including Noel Streatfeild, Alison Uttley, Ian Seraillier and notably Dorothy Edwards's My Naughty Little Sister series.

Shirley began to write and draw her own picture books when her children were young. Her first book - Lucy and Tom's Day - was published in 1960, and she followed it with, among others, Dogger, and the Alfie series. Her books include the wordless picture book Up and Up, collection of rhymes and poems Out and About, and for the very young The Nursery Collection.

She wrote two novels for older children, Hero on a Bicycle, about a 13-year-old Italian boy during the occupation of Florence, and Whistling in the Dark, set during the Liverpool Blitz. Her memoir, A Life Drawing, was published in 2002.

She also collaborated with her daughter, Clara Vulliamy, on the Dixie O'Day series; which saw Shirley with an illustrator for the first time with Shirley writing the text and Clara creating the illustrations.

In 2020 she returned to her much-loved character, Dogger, with a new story Dogger's Christmas.

Shirley Hughes has won the Other Award, the Eleanor Farjeon Award, and the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration twice, for Dogger in 1977 and for Ella's Big Chance in 2003. In 2007 Dogger was voted the public's favourite Greenaway winner of all time. She was Highly Commended for the Greenaway Medal for The Lion and the Unicorn in 1998. Shirley received an OBE in 1999 for services to Children's Literature, and a CBE in 2017. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was the first recipient of BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Shirley died in London in 2022.

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