High in a tree house live two very best friends. One is a girl and one is a dog. And everyone knows them as Evie and Pog.

Evie is six years old. She likes knitting and jumping and books and cake.

Pog is a pug. He is two and likes to drink tea and read the newspaper.

Evie and Pog also love to have fun! Join them as they take off on three happy adventures - Puppy School Mess, School Play Drama and Cake Stall Chaos.


Evie and Pog felt quite different to other junior fiction books we've read so far, which have either been firmly in a school setting or very much fantasy with lots of magic. This is somewhere in between, Evie is at school, but also lives in a treehouse with a dog that reads the paper. It is fun and silly and whimsical, and generally just a delight.

The layout of the books is gorgeous - the text and images are spread across the pages in a way that is fun and interesting, but still simple enough for a beginner reader to be able to follow without being confused about their order. We also both loved that there are diagrams and maps throughout the book.

We've been doing lots of reading together - taking it in turns to read pages, or one of us doing the voices - the text is a delight to read out loud. Amelia particularly loves Granny Gladys with her exclamations like "Leaping lamingtons!" and "Pollywolly doodle!"

Clearly Evie and Pog are a hit at our place - we'll be picking up the second book soon, and keeping an eye out for the third when it is released in May. If you'd like to hear a bit more about them from Tania herself, I highly recommend checking out the One More Page podcast (which is always a delight). Tania was a guest on episode 44, and I really enjoyed hearing her discuss not only this book, but her broader work too.

xo Bron

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Evie and Pog Take Off by Tania McCartney
Out now from Harper Collins
Source: We couldn't resist buying this one when we saw it in the bookshop
Recommended Age: 6+ (although I think younger kids would enjoy having this read to them too)
Category: Junior fiction, humor

You can find Tania on her website here and her blog here.