This charming book about a scared puppy who loses his owner in Central Park (New York, the reader presumes) could be seen as a gentle tale about the rites of passage.

Written by Peter Howe, and illustrated beautifully by Omar Rayyan, Waggit’s Tale introduces the gangly but intelligent young dog, Waggit, to a wide variety of dogs who provide friendship, challenges and support through good times and bad.

The sub-plot introduces the same ideas to children aged, maybe, 8-10 years old, who also need to find their own ways in the big world. And, as Waggit finds, in the course of different adventures, it’s can be frightening out there.

Fortunately, however, Waggit doesn’t find out just how cruel it can be until he’s grown up a little under the sage guidance of the big park dog, Tazar, the ‘father figure’ who discovers the shivering puppy running around in circles in the park trying to find his master.

Master, in the world of ‘uprights’, as these talking dogs see humans, is an anomaly; not something any dog worth his or her tail should wag it over.

All the same, some dogs like independence, some like groups, and some are born for human companionship and the comfort that can come with it.

After surviving a winter or two in the park, and growing up to become a highly regarded hunter, Waggit is tempted into human contact again by dint of pastrami and sausage given in ever larger quantities by a singing woman who takes a liking to him.

One day, though, he is cheated out of both his new and his old friendships by a dog catcher coming along and taking him off to ‘the great unknown’, as dogs see it. The nightmare journey sees him thrown into dog jail.

Here, the miseries are multiple. When a dog fails to engage the eye of a lost master or a new human friend, they disappear. No dog has ever been known to come back…

Waggit is luckier than most, and therein lies the next turn of his ‘tale’.

HarperCollins Children’s Books www.harperscollinschildrensbooks.co.uk