Blue, The Builder's Dog

The desire for a place to call your own is also explored in Blue, the Builder's Dog (Penguin. 32 pp. $24.99) by Jen Storer. Blue is an important member of the building team, travelling to work every day in the back of the ute, and helping to keep everyone on track on the building site. But when Blue goes home each night, he has to sleep in the shed. Blue yearns for a purpose-built kennel of his own, and so he decides to stay at home and build one. It's a delightfully ramshackle affair, but it obviously doesn't meet building regulations. And so, when a storm hits, everything falls apart. But Blue's building mates come to the rescue, and he finally gets the kennel he deserves. Storer's well-constructed text provides a perfect foundation for Andrew Joyner's imaginative cartoon-style illustrations. Joyner's images are chock full of details and visual humour, and his building site is a celebration of modern, multicultural Australia. Blue himself is a dog with attitude, an engaging character with whom children can identify. This is true blue, well-crafted entertainment.

Stephanie Owen Reeder, The Sydney Morning Herald

With some books – you just know ! You know you will love them before you even open them, you know on some level the journey this story is about to take you on has personal meaning for you – and that is what happened when I saw Blue, The Builder’s Dog. Jen Storer’s story is perfect – she is a trustworthy author who let’s us know all the true, quirky and funny aspects of a working dog on a building site and then takes us through the dog’s up and down journey of building his own house. ...and Andrew Joyner paints the perfect picture with his illustrations as busy as a true worksite – there is so much to find and his characterisations are very expressive.

Brook Tayla, Tell Tales to Me