Nepi the corgi

Tittamari Marttinen: Nepi ja paras koiravahti 2009
and  Nepi onnenkoira 2010
illustrated by Christel Rönns



Nepi and the best dog sitter ever
Nepi is a corgi, whose owner is very busy.  When the owner goes to work, Nepi is taken to the neighbors. One is too lazy, just eats junk. The other is too active, Nepi is exhausted.  The third one dresses Nepi up, so that he feels the other dogs are laughing at him. Finally there is  Alma, the girl upstairs. Together they go to the dog park, take naps and have fun. The best dog sitter ever!

Nepi meets Alma.

Nepi, the lucky dog
Alma is taking Nepi to a field trip to a summer camp for schoolchildren. There they meet other kids and their dog, a Saint Bernard named Pyry. The Saint Bernard is a hero, it used to live in Lapland and it saved people from the avalanches. And he is huge. Nepi feels himself a little small. He had never saved any lives. Everyone loves Pyry. Nepi wants someone to tell that they love him, too.

Nepi the lucky dog

The next day Alma takes Nepi to the beach. There they meet Enska, a  pug. His owner says he is a champion and Nepi feels jealous. He picks on Enska, who gets really sad.  Nepi feels awful and appologizes.  They find a common note and start playing with each other.  At home Nepi tells his owner that he wants to be something special. His owner keeps telling him, he is special. In any case, Nepi decides he can do heroic acts himself.  He helps the old lady next door to open the trash and a young mother to catch her toddler.  Later he saves Alma, or he thinks so, Alma is only doing somersaults in the water.  Alma says that Nepi saved her from boredom and loneliness.

Cute stories about a dog. Which could easily be identified as a child. I do not know, how children relate to these stories, but as an adult I see the great lessons in both of these books.  And corgis are cute too

Nepi and Alma at the camp with Pyry