Lulubelle and her Bones
Vashti Farrer
David Cox

Scholastic 2003
92pp., pbk., $11.95
1865045799

The story is about two dogs: Lulubelle and Bones. They run away from London to escape from a life where they are treated badly. The story tells of the many adventures and dangers that Lulubelle and Bones go through during their escape.

During their adventures, they meet up with a gypsy, who tells them their fortune. The gypsy tells them that they will have lots of bad experiences, but they will eventually have good experiences.

Lulubelle has very tough experiences, because she is the lap dog of a Duchess, and is not used to living on the streets. Bones helps Lulubelle through her journey and helps her to become tough.

Lulubelle and Bones end up in a theatre for performing dogs, and Bones ends up saving the life of the main actress. The actress insists that Bones and Lulubelle become part of the act. Bones and Lulubelle end up getting married and living a very happy life.

The story is very exciting and interesting. It tells of the tough experiences of life through the eyes of two dogs.

Characters:
Lulubelle
She is a lap dog for a Duchess, whose job is to keep the Duchess company. Lulubelle is carried everywhere and she believes that she is a human being on four legs and not a dog. Her experiences of life are what she sees from the lap of the Duchess.

Lulubelle knows nothing of life outside of the Duchess’ home. Lulubelle starts off being a ‘lady’ and once on her journey with Bones, does nothing but complain about all the things she is asked to do.
Once she has travelled a fair way, she starts becoming tougher, and starts to become nice.

Bones
Bones is a ‘tourn broche’ – he runs on a treadmill (in the kitchen) all day, turning the meat on the spit. Bones is very likeable and very tough. He helps to teach Lulubelle how to get tough and learn to live life on the road.

Bones is treated badly by the cook and decides to run away. He helps to save as many lives as he can.

Purpose
The story is very entertaining, but I believe that the purpose of the story is to teach the reader that you need to go outside of what you are used to experiencing, your safety zone, and go with what life throws at you. It doesn’t matter if the lessons life gives you are hard or easy, the point is to have the courage to experience them.
Parts of the story made me laugh, other parts made me sad, but mostly I enjoyed the whole story.

Illustrations
The drawings themselves were good, but they were difficult to see what was happening in them. The characters were not shown very clearly, and the pictures were too dark. Some of the pictures were difficult to work out what they were about.

Readability
The size of the print was okay for my age. There were not too many pages or chapters, which stopped me from losing interest in reading the book. Some words were a little too difficult and I couldn’t work out what the author was trying to say.

Age group
I would recommend this book for ages 10 and 11.

Personal opinion
I enjoyed the book, but I don’t think that I would buy it. I find the cover is very busy and looks complicated. The cover isn’t appealing, so I would probably look past it in the bookshop. Even the blurb on the back of the book doesn’t say enough to grab my interest. I would recommend that other people read the book, and I am glad that I read the book. The book explains that you need to take some risks in order to experience.

By Samantha, Toowoomba 10 years