Adorable as expected ( )

I had been a fan of Dodie Smith's novel for (sort-of) adults, I CAPTURE THE CASTLE. And in grade school I remember reading THE STARLIGHT BARKING, the sequel to the famous 101 DALMATIANS. I also loved the movie when I was a kid; I must have been 10, since I see in Wikipedia that 1979 was the year of one of the theater re-issues. I remember going through a bit of a 'dog phase' afterwards.

But I don't believe I had ever read this, the original first book, till now. I was able to call out most of the changes that the movie made - such as getting rid of an entire dog (they upped the number of puppies to make 101). In the book the dog couple are named Pongo and Missis; and since Missis can't nurse 15 puppies, another dog, Perdita, is brought in to take on seven of them. The whole wet-nursing thing was probably deemed too graphic for Disney. They named the couple Pongo and Perdita, with no third dog brought in, and didn't go into how an animal with eight nipples could nurse 15 puppies. Which is all well enough! Anyway...

This book was written in 1956, by a woman, and I was startled by the sexism - yes, sexism, in Dogdom! Missis is kind of an airhead who literally can't tell her left paw from her right. Pongo is the leader, who figures out everything and has all the great ideas. I was raised on 1970s Girl Power. Girls were always the clever ones in fiction by the time I came along. Once the censors get a hold of this one, it's going to be Missis who is figuring everything out. Oh - also it's the GIRL puppies who are too weak to make the journey without riding in a cart. Not the later-born or weaker puppies - the girls. Craziness.

Back to the clever Pongo. Male chauvinism aside, he's a clever pooch, all right! When his 15 kids go missing, he knows what's going down. "All through the long December night, he put two and two together and made four. Once or twice he almost made five." For although he had little Latin beyond "Cave canem," "he had, as a young dog, devoured Shakespeare (in a tasty leather binding)."

I was honestly riveted by the climax, as our hundred dalmatians (only 100 at this point - there's a surprise twist at the end) are racing down a road with Cruella di Vil bearing down on them, with wire netting on either side of the road making escape impossible! Drat those humans and their fences!

All turns out well. ( )

I loved this book so much as a child. I can still recall laying in bed and reading a bedraggled paperback.

5/5 pup cups.

Mentions abuse of dogs, and uses the word “gypsies”. The ways the dogs might be killed. There is a child who is very unkind to the dogs.

Cruella DeVille definitely is evil and so are her henchmen. This not a story to just hand over but one to be discussed.

Is this a great book? Yes.

Is this a book with danger, sadness, action, heroism and villains? Yes. ( )

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this on audio. The writing was clever and sweet. I love it that it was from the animals' viewpoint. My favorite example of this was when they stumbled upon a church and thought it must have been designed specifically for puppies, with a puppy bed in front of each seat. (I don't know if I really needed to hide that, but I didn't want to spoil the fun.

Oddly, I'd be hesitant recommend it to kids; I know when I was a child, I would have been horrified and possibly traumatized at the callousness of Cruella De Vil and her talk of the many different ways to kill the puppies for their fur, to say nothing of all the kittens she bragged of drowning. I might just have to limit my recommendations to the adults I know who love children's books. ( )

SPOILER ALERT: Disney changes the book. Actually thats no surprise, but this one is a weird one. The first two chapters and the last chapter are really different, yet the rest of the book is kind of the same thing as the movie. However, it's not the plot that has the biggest changes it's the characters.

For starters the name Roger and Anita are nowhere to be found. The couple is in the book, but they are only given their last name Dearly. I actually like Disney's versions of the characters better because they had more personality.

In the book there are two Nannies, Nanny Cook and Nanny Butler. Again I like what Disney did there by making them one character instead of two separate ones.

Perdita is one who is an odd combo. In the book she is not mention as much. In fact she is the pups foster mother. Their real mother is Missis. I can see why Missis was changed for the movie to Perdita, but also see why Dodie Smith wrote to Disney asking why he changed her name. Neither of the dogs were alike to make a good combo.

Probably the oddest change was with Cruella De Vil. This book finally answered a question I've had how Anita and Cruella knew each other in college. Disney mad her look at least 20 years older then Anita. When in fact, the book is is younger and prettier. The other big change: SHE'S MARRIED! That actually floored me. And the fact her husband took her last name as his did as well. Didn't realize there was some feminism in the book.

There are several other character changes in the book, but I don't want to go on and on with it.

I still love the Disney movie and it's still one of my favorite movies of all time, just surprised about some of the changes Disney made. Just a head up, the writing is different from what I expected too. She makes the dog more like humans and the humans more like animals. ( )