'Philippa Pearce - one of the finest children's writers of the 20th century' - GuardianIn A DOG SO SMALL young Ben Blewitt is desperate for a dog.

He's picked out the biggest and best dogs from the books in the library - and he just knows he's going to get one for his birthday.

Ben is excited when the big day arrives, but he receives a picture of a dog instead of a real one!

But the imagination can be a powerful thing, and when Ben puts his to work, his adventures really begin!Philippa Pearce grew up in a millhouse near Cambridge and read English and history at Girton College.

She was a scriptwriter-producer for the BBC, a children's book editor and reviewer, a lecturer, a storyteller and freelance writer for radio and newspapers as well as writing some of the best-loved books of the 20th century.

She won a Carnegie Medal for TOM'S MIDNIGHT GARDEN and a Whitbread Prize for THE BATTLE OF BUBBLE AND SQUEAK also published by Puffin Books.

She died in December, 2006.