“Full of love, mischief and great charm, told in gloriously readable prose and complemented with charming illustrations, this is a book for all ages.”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

This is a cutely illustrated tale of a dog called Mishti and her owners. Mishti is a Labrador who goes from Mirzapur to Delhi to find a new home. The fact that her owners are Sir Mark Tully and his partner Gillian Wright is not really important but that adds a new dimension to those who think that this is just a children’s picture book and explains why the Delhi guests come to discuss the Future of India.

Mishti is a book about making a home with a dog and how owners and dogs adjust to each other in the funniest possible way. There are snippets of Delhi life, like walking in Lodi Gardens and the havoc that dogs can create there, dog reactions to the seasons and the problems that occur when dogs come into contact with the langurs of the area.

Wright has written a sympathetic book that dog owners and children will warm to. She is aware that many people are scared of dogs and that others will just try to handle a dog without consulting the owner. There is a subtext on how to make life easier for a new dog in the home and how festivals like Diwali can have different effects of different dogs, as can vets and cars. Animals, Wright hints, have their own individuality and need to be respected no matter how cuddly they are. Anitha Balachandran’s illustrations counterpoint the text.

 

Reviewed by:

Anjana Basu

Added 26th June 2017

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Anjana Basu