<p>''Philippa Pearce - one of the finest children''s writers of the 20th century'' - <i>Guardian</i><br><br>In A DOG SO SMALL young Ben Blewitt is <i>desperate</i> 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!<br><br>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 i