Book: The 101 Dalmations by Dodie Smith
Genre: Children’s chapter novel
Publisher: Puffin Books
Publication date: 1956
Pages: 184

Source: Library

A fun English Christmas story

Summary: Pongo and Missis have the perfect dogs’ life with Mr. and Mrs. Dearly in London under the tender care of Nanny Butler and Nanny Cook. The only mar on their perfect life is the creepy fur-loving neighbor, Cruella de Vil. But, no time to worry about that — there are puppies on the way!

Thoughts: This book wasn’t on my list of books to review during the Review-a-Thon this weekend for the simple reason that I hadn’t finished it. But, I got it done last night, so I’m putting it up as a celebratory bonus review. I already completed the 9 book reviews (most scheduled for the next two weeks) I intended to write this weekend, so this is number 10!

I saw the movie 101 Dalmations when I was a kid, of course, and even read a book version, but I think it was a movie-to-book, not this original novel. I’m not sure I knew that it came from a book. Mark of Carstairs Considers put this on my radar last summer when he reviewed it. He mentioned that much of the action happens in the week leading up to Christmas, so I saved this book to cap my year of reading about England with a holiday-themed novel. And, it was just perfect. I highly recommend adding 101 Dalmations to your Christmas-reading stack.

Appeal: This is a charming, funny book with characters you don’t meet in the movie.

Have you read this book? What did you think?