What’s Wrong With Rosie? has been sitting on my bookshelf for years and I had no idea it was such a treasure!

Nan and her yellow Labrador Rosie live in “the Dales.” Nan is happy with Rosie but Rosie is perhaps lonely. After a scare with Rosie’s health as she getting older, Nan ends up with a new puppy for both of them.

This is a lovely, gentle story that I could read again and again. The language is wonderful. “The silver hairs gleamed on Rosie’s once golden face.” .” The emotions that it describes are complex and real but painted with only a few deft strokes. “She felt as though someone had switched all her lights off.”

And the pictures! They’re full of wonderful detail of a modest house and a country life. The cover doesn’t do the inside art work justice.

I can’t imagine that my four-years-old grandson would appreciate this book for several more years. It’s a picture book but it’s really for older children, or even adults. This adult certainly loves it.
5 stars, easily

Written by: Pippa Jagger
Illustrated by: Gavin Rowe
Published by: Magi Publications London 1997

Canadian link:
What’s Wrong with Rosie?