Katrina Nannestad (text) and Cheryl Orsini (illustrator), Mim and the Disastrous Dog Show (The Travelling Bookshop #4), ABC Books, March 2023, 226 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780733342240
Step inside the travelling bookshop and you will find the right book that might just change your life …
Mim Cohen roams the world in a travelling bookshop, along with her dad and her bumbling little brother Nat. Their travelling bookshop is pulled along by a huge horse called Flossy that leads them to where they are needed most.
Mim and the Disastrous Dog Show is the fourth book in the Travelling Bookshop series and the one where Mim appears a little more grown up with a more mature, and worried view of her world. In this story, the family arrive in the Cotswolds countryside in England, just in time for a village dog show. The judge, Lord Melville-Timms, is in a pickle. He has judged cakes and flowers and vegetables, but never dogs. And his bulldog, Bubbles, is a muddling, meddling disobedient bundle of slobber!
Mim knows they’re here to help Lord Melville-Timms. To give him courage. To prevent a dog-show disaster. They need to find him the right book to make this the best Puddling Muddleberry Dog Show ever. But Dad gives him books for children – Jokes for Every Occasion and 101 Games for Children. These do not look like the right books which makes Mim terribly worried.
And here the story twists and turns with delightful sub plots of embracing silliness, animal friends, cardboard cars, and a Toad in the Hole meal with no frogs. Nat’s letter fascination is with the letter ‘C’ in this instalment and on a quest to collect as many ‘C’ shaped items as he can find, including a stuffed bear called Coco. Mim’s treasured word collection has an addition of a ‘Mind Your Head’ sign, which leads to her pondering, how does one mind their head? Will it suddenly fall off and you need to put it back on again?
As the final heat in the dog show nears, Bubbles creates chaos in the obedience trials. But perhaps Lord Melville-Timms did have the right book? Because he embraces the silliness inside him and turns the chaos into a fun, festive performance filled with jokes and party games.
The story lines and fun and games in every scene make this an unputdownable book. I love the scene where Nat smashes their teacups so he can keep the ‘C’ shaped handles for his collection. More ‘C’ words for him to love! The language rolls off readers’ tongues like honey and fun words will stretch their imaginations. Orsini’s line drawings are endearing and full of emotion.
This series is perfect for children searching for child centric stories on new friendships with odd people, otter antics, flying lambs, unusual British food and the wonder of the world for ages 7+ years.
Reviewed by Stef Gemmill
