The Dog Who Saved the World

Ross Welford's The Dog Who Saved the World is a funny, big-hearted adventure for 11 year olds about a girl, a very greedy shelter dog and a scientist with a secret.

What happens

Georgie is eleven and she's been dog-mad since birth (her dad swears her first words were "Can we get a dog?"). When one finally arrives from St Woof's, it's Mr Mash. A mongrel with a wind problem who'll eat anything, including the stick of a dropped ice lolly.

Twenty-seven days later he has to go back. Her dad's girlfriend turns out to be allergic. So Georgie volunteers at the shelter instead, where she can still see him.

Then Mr Mash knocks an old lady flat on the beach and eats her swimming cap. She's Dr Emilia Pretorius. She's American, sharp-tongued and not at all impressed. But instead of reporting them, she tells Georgie and her friend Ramzy to come to the Spanish City at six. And not to tell anyone.

What's waiting inside the old dome is a virtual reality you can actually FEEL. Sand trickles through your fingers. The sun warms up when she taps a key. And there's a scorpion the size of a coffee table who isn't supposed to be there at all (his name is Buster, apparently).

Georgie tells the story looking back, and she drops hints as she goes. A campervan explosion. A Dog Plague. A million-pound jackpot. Who could resist reading on after that?

Ramzy is a joy. He's ten and five-sixths, he talks to anyone and he calls the builders "sir". Georgie is braver and a bit grumpier, and the two of them together are very good company.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Dr Pretorius asks two children to keep their visits secret from their parents, and she says herself that it's always a bad idea when a grown-up does that. Georgie and Ramzy go along with it anyway (Ramzy tells some fibs at home to make it work). She also tells them she's dying of a heart condition. It's handled gently, but a child who's lost someone recently might feel it.

If you've got a reader who loves dogs and likes their science a bit mad, this is a lovely fit.

What to read next

If they want more of Welford's strange goings-on in the North East, try The Kid Who Came From Space. It opens with a news report about a twelve-year-old girl missing from a Northumberland village, and then goes somewhere much, much stranger.