The Great Dane: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet Book

When a wealthy man is set upon by thieves, and rescued by a "great smelly, slobbery, small-tooth dog," he promises his defender the choice of his many treasures. Refusing the man's multilingual fish, virtuosic songbird, and golden-egg-laying goose, the dog requests his beautiful young daughter instead. So begins a tale that falls into the same category as Beauty and the Beast and East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon - that would be tale-type 425C in the Aarne-Thompson classification system, for those who are interested - in which an enchanted prince in beastly form must be saved by the love of a young maiden.

I enjoyed this traditional English tale - which, to my mind, falls more on the East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon end of the spectrum, when it comes to this tale type - immensely. Although I found the narrative a little jarring at first (too many short, declarative sentences), I eventually adjusted to Macdonald's rhythm. The gouache illustrations by Julie Paschkis are bright and appealing, with some lovely details. I particularly liked the decorative endpapers, with their depiction of various herbs and plants.

Folktale enthusiasts will be interested to learn that this story has also been retold in picture-book format by the fabulous Kevin Crossley-Holland ( Small-Tooth Dog ), as well as appearing in Betsy Hearne's immense multicultural collection of Beauty and the Beast type tales, Beauties and Beasts . But whether one's interest is in comparing this to other tales of the same type (I'm in the midst of a Beauty and the Beast project myself, at the moment), or simply in reading it for its own sake, there is much in The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog to enjoy!