Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced readers copy. All opinions are honest and my own.

When a child wants to hide her secret dog, it ends in disaster. It's a fun journey for the reader following along as the dog travels to school and home and stays at home all day unattended. There is a wonderful lesson to be learned about keeping secrets here.

The book has simple illustrations that may appeal to some early readers. I found the story more appealing than the illustrations though.

I love this book. Love it. It's short, simple and funny. Kid wants a dog - kid finds a dog and keeps it secret.. I work with reluctant readers, so something accessible, entertaining and short enough to get through in a couple of sessions is a great find. Got to say that I love those deceptively simple illustrations too. Brilliant. I'd give it six stars if I could!.

My Secret Dog by Tom Alexander is a picturebook. I always wanted a dog, but Mum said I wasn't allowed. So I got one anyway. My secret dog lives in the cupboard and we sneak out at night to play. We'll be best friends forever, so long as Mum doesn't find out.

My Secret Dog is a picturebook about the responsibility and work that comes with owning a pet, as well as how much trouble secrets and lies can cause. The text is simple and fun, letting the reader imagine all sorts of craziness. The illustrations are pretty basic, stick figures that have a lot of fun with the use of black and white spaces. I liked the read, on the entertainment and lesson giving level. I think I might have to read this with my daughter who insists that we need a dog, right now!

My Secret Dog seems like a simple story at first. Yes, the illustrations are and stay simple throughout the story, but the tale evolves from a girl wanting a dog to keeping a dog in secret to having to fess up and learn about how keeping secrets isn't a good thing. Secrets can start small, and they may be fun at first, but over time they grow and become work until you're too tired and upset to do anything else - just like taking care of and covering up for a secret dog!

Overall, kids will enjoy the lengths the girl goes to so she can keep her secret dog a secret at home and at school and they might learn a good lesson about keeping secrets too.

Didn't get the pet you wanted for Christmas and thinking of getting one and hiding it in the cupboard? In this story, a little girl "adopts" a dog, and doesn't tell her mother. Keeping it in the cupboard teaches her that not everything should be kept in there. When she finally admits to her mum about her pet a good chat teaches her about responsibility.
An enjoyable read, with illustrations that are simple and easily taken in, but may not be to everyone's appeal this book is a good way to bring up the subject of responsible pet ownership with younger children.

'My Secret Dog' by Tom Alexander is about a little girl with a big secret. The illustrations are kind of simple, as is the story.

A young girl finds a dog, and knows that her mother will never allow her to have one, so she hides it. She knows she can't leave the dog alone when she goes to school, so it goes with her. The more she tries to hide the dog, the more trouble she will eventually get in. When your secret is a dog, can you really keep it secret that long?

It's a funny little story, but there isn't much of a moral here, except maybe that deceiving your mother and teacher is a bad idea. The illustrations are close to being stick figures, and they work for the story. Kids might get a laugh about this ambitious girl and her plan to get a dog.

I received a copy of this ebook from Jessica Kingsley Publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

It's a familiar story: "He followed me home! Can I keep him?" Only in Tom Alexander's My Secret Dog, this little girl doesn't ask. She decides she will keep him, but keep him a secret! She hides him in her closet at him, takes him to school and hides him in the cloakroom, hides him under her bed. Inevitably, he makes enough messes that she can't keep him hidden any longer.

It's a cute story, to which many kids will be able to relate. Even if their dogs aren't secret, they will appreciate the little girl's efforts to take him to school and cover for his messes. Alexander's drawings are simple and very linear. Alexander must be going for a very minimalistic look here, but I did not find his basic black and white drawings to be particularly appealing. I like the story, though.





Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

I thought that this book was quite funny in place and the images were nice but I wasn't a huge fan of the story line in this one. Three stars from me for this one.

This fun book will delight kids because they so readily can relate. An adorable dog follows a little girl home and she opens the door to let him come inside. That's where her secret begins. She has always wanted a dog of her very own but has been told by her Mum that they don't have enough space to keep one. She then creates a variety of ways to keep him hidden. Think she can do it?

At first she thinks she'll just give him some food because he is so hungry but as she spends time watching him eat her heart melts and she can't tell him go. She decides to take him to her room, conceal him in her cupboard and make him a secret. Oh my! Will this idea work do you think?

She plays with him at night, packs him into a suitcase and wheels him off to school the next day with her, then hides him in the cloakroom. Thankfully he is well-behaved all morning. She plays games with him at lunchtime but after games and an outdoor romp he refuses to get back into the box because he is having so much out-of-the-box fun! Luckily she gets him back into the suitcase, back inside the school and back into the cloakroom. Whew! This dog is a lot of work! Then things go downhill from there:

"He ripped up a scarf... ate a pair of gloves.. and I probably shouldn't mention what he did in those wellies."

Her angry schoolmates riot. She gets sent home with a note.

When the little girl arrives at home the dog did not want to go back into the cupboard so she tells him to hide under her bed. She did not sleep a wink all night because she was so worried her Mum would discover him.


The next morning Mum observes how tired her little girl is from her nighttime (and daytime) antics and asks her if she is ok. Still the little girl will not confess.

The following day she decides to leave the dog at home so she will not get into any more trouble at school. But alas she spends the day worrying about him being all alone which adds to her exhausted demeanour. The teacher, seeing she is not looking well sends her home with another note. What she finds when she goes inside changes all of her plans for permanently harbouring the dog and forces her to tell her mom what she had been up to. The story does have a happy ending for both her and her secret dog ( and Mum ) and the author has tucked in a lovely twist on the last page that will make you laugh.

The illustrations are simple, black and white, uncluttered and work extremely well with the text. The little girl discovers that secrets can be very hard, and exhausting to keep. I like the book a lot and recommend it.

This was such a cute story about a little girl who tries to secretly raise a dog at home. Loved the moral explained in the story. Would highly recommend for children.

Thanks to Net galley and Jessica Kingsl­ey Publishers for making this book available for an honest review
Simple and funny story, suitable enough for beginner’s, Illustrations are good enough.
This is the story of how a little girl wants a dog and tries to keep it secret from her mother. The story also defined how important is to share every secret to your mother, if you don't want to put yourself in any trouble.
Illustrations are very simple, I believe early readers will find to try these drawings by themselves after reading it.
I'll give it 4/5

Amazingly cute and illustrated in a mixture between graphic novel and picture book. A real winner.

A nice little story for children about a child who finds a lively dog and attempts to keep it hidden both at home and school! However, I'm really surprised this has been published by JKP as it doesn't appear to meet criteria expected by them in order to publish a children's book eg for or about children with an ASD. I really hope they return to publishing stories about children with a disability in the future, because that's what they do best!

I thought that this was a pretty entertaining children's book. I thought this was going to be a book with a message for kids but it actually didn't carry a message, which is a little disappointing. It was quite funny though and that's why I gave it 4 stars. I do think kids will like it and not just for the story but for the illustrations too. The drawings were very simple but they were nice and they also were quite funny.

* I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love dogs and the cover of My Secret Dog is so cute that I had to read it.

A young girl finds a dog who ends up following her home. She can't bear to part with him so keeps the dog a secret. She hides him at home and school, and what was first a lot of fun ends up very worrying because hiding a dog in a small flat and at school is harder than she thought.

I loved the simplicity of the black and white line drawings, especially the expression on the mother's face when she's laughing, and I'm keen to try drawing the dog. I'm definitely no artist so chances are it won't look anything like the example but I'll certainly have fun trying.

I appreciated the mother in the story talking to her daughter about how secrets can start out small but grow over time and loved that she told her daughter that no matter what secret she had she could tell her Mum who would love her no matter what.

My soapbox complaint about this book is that the daughter learns nothing from this talk and winds up repeating the same behaviour all over again. I'm not a fan of children's books that have a message but then don't follow through. If there's a message about not keeping secrets from your parents, then I expect the ending to be something along the lines of the child coming to tell the parent about a secret as they know they don't need to hide anything from them anymore or choosing to not do the same thing all over again. I may well be an old fuddy duddy but I wouldn't personally buy a book for a child that has a message with no follow through.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.

I'd normally not be so harsh on a books art style due to my own not being the best, but this one just doesn't rub me the right way. The simplistic style can work for some stories but this one I'm just not as much of a fan of, if I wanted to see drawings like this, I'd ask our kids to have an art contest.

A young reader book by Tom Alexander from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Written in first person with simple line drawn art (see cover), this short book (40 pages) will engage younger readers. The art is charmingly simple and illustrates the story very well.

The young protagonist meets a stray dog who follows her home. Her mother has already said they don't have enough room to care for a dog. She attempts to hide the dog, with hilarious and predictable results. This book could have easily been my biography as an 8 year old. Happily, my grandparents were able to give my stealth dog a home where I could see her and help take care of her at least part time. I really felt for the little girl in this book.

It's worth noting that the language in My Secret Dog is British English, not American. 'Mum', 'daft', 'wellies' etc, though all of them are illustrated/contextualized and none are confusing. I think this is an added bonus, exposing youngsters to more nuanced and localized language at a young age.

I enjoyed this book very much and heartily recommend it to anyone going through 'I want a DOG' phase with their own youngsters. It would also be timely in a classroom setting when discussing themes such as planning or consequences. Very sweet and likeable book.

Simple story with a simple topic. Child wants a dog, figures that she can hid the dog, and it will all be fine. First she tries to hid it at school, then at home. Of course it doesn't work out, but the way this is written, in first person, at a child's point of view, makes it seem as though, hey it could work.

Delightful book about what it really takes to have a dog.

I like the fun she has with her secret dog, how she has a contest to see who can bark the loudest.

I think this book is perfect for early readers. The pictures are very simple too, as though drawn by a child, which draws you in as well.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

*thank you to Jessica Kingsl­ey Publishers and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

4 stars.
Such a funny story about a little girl who tries to keep a dog she discovered, hidden from her mother. She tries to take it to school which really doesnt end well. She tries to keep the dog in a cupboard...nope, that didnt work either. This hilarious book is great for all ages. Its short, funny and fun to read. I definitely recommend this!