Girls Who Love Dogs In Children’s Literature

100 Simple Recipes Stanley Ekman (1913-1998)

What if you have a canine loving girl and she would like to see herself reflected in literature? Well, girls and dogs have in previous eras and in other cultures been seen together quite often.

OLD SCHOOL KIDLIT ABOUT GIRLS AND THEIR LOVE FOR DOGS

19TH C ANTIQUE CHATTER BOX 1881 ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN’S PICT BOOK ESTES AND LAURIAT DANCING WITH DOG ‘the first lesson’
cover by R. Bernardi, 1908
cover by R. Bernardi, 1908
Charles Edward Chambers (1883 - 1941) Pampered Treatment dog
Charles Edward Chambers (1883 – 1941) Pampered Treatment
George Hughes illustration, Saturday Evening Post cover, Oct 25, 1952
CHARLES DANA GIBSON New Cartoons
CHARLES DANA GIBSON New Cartoons
1913 Fashion illustration by Pierre Brissaud
1913 Fashion illustration by Pierre Brissaud
Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855-1919) - The Goldsmith Ladies ... in a Peugeot
Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855-1919) – The Goldsmith Ladies … in a Peugeot
Philip Richard Morris - A Winter Walk
Philip Richard Morris – A Winter Walk
Frank Craig, The Thames, Harper's Monthly Magazine, Sept. 1911 The course at Henley between the races
Frank Craig, The Thames, Harper’s Monthly Magazine, Sept. 1911 The course at Henley between the races
Every Girl's Story Book illustrations by Thomas Henry Dog fight illustration by Thomas Henry 1920s
Every Girl’s Story Book illustrations by Thomas Henry Dog fight illustration by Thomas Henry 1920s
Make-Believe & Reality (1884) Published By E & J B Young & Company dog
Make-Believe & Reality (1884) Published By E & J B Young & Company

The 1940s gave us George and Timmy, though Enid Blyton felt she had to turn Georgina into an honorary boy.

George and Timmy Famous Five

Dorothy had Toto, but you won’t find Toto on a lot of the covers. Here he is on this one, though:

Dorothy Toto

Notice that girl dogs tend to be little and cute, while boys tend to own larger working dogs:

Us illustrated and written by Cecil Aldin. The Story of a little girl and her black Scotch terrier.
Us illustrated and written by Cecil Aldin. The Story of a little girl and her black Scotch terrier.
I don't know the source of this illustration, which seems to date from the 1920s. Typically, the boy is associated with the dog; the girl with a cat; the toddler with a stuffed animal.
I don’t know the source of this illustration, which seems to date from the 1920s. Typically, the boy is associated with the dog; the girl with a cat; the toddler with a stuffed animal.

Scotty dogs are perhaps especially feminine:

SURPRISE: THE STORY OF MOLLY AND MOPS by Charlotte Smith
SURPRISE: THE STORY OF MOLLY AND MOPS by Charlotte Smith
This is the only version I can find of LHotP which highlights the special relationship between the girl and her dog.
This is the only version I can find of Little House On The Prairie which highlights the special relationship between the girl and her dog.
Dogs continued to be important throughout Laura's life.
Dogs continued to be important throughout Laura’s life.
Francisque Poulbot was a French affichiste (poster designer), draughtsman and illustrator girl dog
Francisque Poulbot was a French affichiste (poster designer), draughtsman and illustrator
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), American painter and illustrator. The Little Model, Collier's Magazine cover, March 1919 dog
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), American painter and illustrator. The Little Model, Collier’s Magazine cover, March 1919 dog

CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE GRADE

These days we do have the benefit of Kate diCamillo. This story ticks another box — it’s not about a well-off kid who lives in a middle class house and a good income. (Winn-Dixie has also been adapted for the screen.)

Because of Winn-Dixie
By Kay Thompson, illustrations by Hilary Knight. An adventurous and confident young girl lives on the top floor of a New York hotel with her nanny, a dog, and a turtle.
By Kay Thompson, illustrations by Hilary Knight. An adventurous and confident young girl lives on the top floor of a New York hotel with her nanny, a dog, and a turtle.
Star In The Storm
Though there's no girl on the cover (wouldn't want to alienate boy readers, now), this is about the relationship between a girl called Charley and her dog.
Though there’s no girl on the cover (wouldn’t want to alienate boy readers, now), this is about the relationship between a girl called Charley and her dog.

Here’s another book about other abled kids, and a girl and her dog.

One Golden Year cover
For one happy year, Caitlin and her mother raise and train a puppy to become a companion dog for the disabled. Albion, the loving, intelligent Golden Retriever, graduates from training and is given to a girl in a wheelchair who is Caitlin’s age.

PICTUREBOOKS

This picturebook from Pamela Allen is about a girl who actually neglects her dog, but learns not to by the end.
Black Dog by Pamela Allen is about a girl who actually neglects her dog, but learns not to by the end.

Wolf Children is a Japanese animated feature about a girl and a boy who are half wolf, half human. The girl is the storyteller narrator. It follows both the boy and the girl as they navigate through childhood and make a big decision at adolescence.

In picture books we have the metafictive story This Book Just Ate My Dog, and the main character is called Bella and is wearing a dress.

This Book Just Ate My Dog

FILM

A number of the stories above have been adapted for film/TV.

We also have The Journey of Natty Gann, which stars a ‘tomboy’ and looks to be a female equivalent of White Fang. The story is a Disney original but there’s also a novelisation of the film.

Set in 1935, the movie tells the story of a 15-year-old tomboy girl, Natty Gann (Meredith Salenger). Out of work because of Depression-era unemployment, Natty’s widowered father (Ray Wise) parlays his surefootedness into getting a job as a lumberjack. In order to get hired, he travels from Chicago to the state of Washington. He tells Natty that she will have to look after herself for the time being. Having no mother, Natty is left in the care of Connie (Lainie Kazan), the insensitive woman who manages the hotel Natty and her father had been living in.

After overhearing Connie reporting her as an abandoned child, Natty runs away to find her father on her own, embarking on a cross-country journey. Along the way she saves a wolfdog from a dog fighting ring. In return the dog, whom she calls Wolf, follows her as her protector in her attempt to return to her Father.

Poster by Arpad Bardocz, circa 1910
Poster by Arpad Bardocz, circa 1910

Header illustration: 100 Simple Recipes Stanley Ekman (1913-1998)

CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)

On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.

Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:

1. Get a pet dog

2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.

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