Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog

Tom Watson's Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog is a daft, chatty story for 7 year olds about five hungry strays and a raccoon who's after the same lunch.

What happens

This is the second Stick Dog book. The narrator opens with a quick catch-up on everybody, so nobody's lost for long.

He does the drawings himself, and he tells you straight out that he stinks at drawing. That's why his hero is a stick dog. You also have to promise not to moan about the pictures (a UFO that looks like a pancake is apparently fair game).

It's a hot June day and the dogs are cooling off at the creek when they hear a little bell. Poo-Poo is sure it's Santa. Karen thinks it's a flying cuckoo clock.

It's actually Peter, pushing a cart with Peter's Frankfurters printed on the side. One sniff and Stick Dog knows they have to get some.

Then he spots a pair of eyes up a maple tree. A raccoon is watching the same cart. The others decide their new rival needs an evil name, and Mutt picks Phyllis.

The plans are where it gets very silly. Mutt wants them all to pretend they're the Furter family, out looking for their lost brother Frank. Stripes needs a helicopter from the helicopter store. Karen curls up on the grass and pretends to be one ENORMOUS frankfurter. Who wouldn't swap a whole cart for that?

Stick Dog listens to every one and finds something kind to say. Then he suggests his own, much simpler idea (they all tell him it's rubbish).

It doesn't go smoothly. Karen hides in a laundry basket and gets carried into a house by a big man with a beard, a pair of heart-covered boxer shorts on her head. Getting her back comes before any frankfurters.

The narrator can't stay on topic for long, and that's half the fun. He stops to explain why one yawn sets off a whole class. He tells you about the day the bin bag split all the way down his drive. Plenty of children will love the chat. A few might just want to get back to the dogs.

If your reader likes a book that talks to them, and a hero who's endlessly patient with his ridiculous friends, this one's easy to love.

What to read next

If they'd like to meet the gang from the very start, try the first Stick Dog book. It's the same pipe under Highway 16 and the same five friends, with the narrator making his deal about the drawings for the first time.