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“A Dog’s Way Home” by Bobbie Pyron (Katherine Tegen 2010) alternates the stories of spunky 6th grader, Abby, and Shetland Sheepdog, Tam, an agility champion.

Both the fact that this is a middle grade novel and by its name, you can be pretty much assured that things are going to turn out okay—that the lost Tam will find his way home. Otherwise I couldn’t bear to read it. Gone is the era of “Old Yeller” and Bambi’s mother being shot by a hunter. I appreciate the fact that nowadays we protect our young from…well…devastating outcomes.

That said, plenty goes wrong for both girl and dog. In fact, I can barely believe that the dog, always in pursuit of food, could survive attacks from the claws of a raccoon, then a bear, the quills of a porcupine, not to mention his traveling hundreds of miles through snowy mountains, but he does. I’m passionately rooting for him, turning those 324 pages fast as I’m able.

There’s plenty of sorrow—more than I anticipated—but it makes the story stronger. Throughout the day I read the book, one or both our dogs slept at my side. When the eagle swoops down on Tam, gouging him with her talons, to steal his rabbit dinner, my little hound twitched in her sleep. I might have been reading her the story. When the man hurls a bottle at Tam, my Lil groaned in her dream.

Abby’s belief in her dog, her instinct that he’s coming home to her moves us almost as strongly as Tam’s adventure. Her family must move from the North Carolina hills to follow her struggling country-singing father when he gets a contract to record in Nashville.

The final chapters alternate faster and faster, getting shorter and shorter—Abby, Tam, Abby, Tam, hurrying you along. You don’t care that it’s late at night and you should turn out the light. You read to the end and for days after you remember both Tam’s plight and Abby’s dedication to her dog. At the end I didn’t cry politely, but blubbered out of control. In gratitude and relief.

Tam is never anthropomorphized, but remains a dog through and through. Having just read “Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know” by Alexandra Horowitz (Scribner 2009), I’m privy to the latest, abundant research on dogs. Author, Pyron, clearly is, too.

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a children’s book author, nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, and librarian.

“No Shelter Here: Making the World a Kinder Place for Dogs ” by biologist Rob Laidlaw (2012) is not your average dog book. It is more an inspiration to help dogs that need you, by becoming what Laidlaw aptly calls a “dog champion.”

Dogs have super senses, starting with their amazing sense of smell, from which dogs attain so much information. Who passed this corner? When? Our various dogs sniff their way along the sidewalk to the park, totally engrossed in their research.

Laidlaw tells us, dogs are highly social and should not be kept alone for any length of time. They’re wonderful companions and family members. They need playtime and a comfortable home. They should not live chained outside. They need good food and fresh water.

It’s best to get your dog from a shelter or from a rescue operation because when you adopt a dog you’re saving a life. If you buy your dog from a pet store, the chances are the dog came from a puppy mill.

Puppy mills are money-making ventures that produce as many puppies as cheaply as possible at the expense of the animals’ comfort. Dogs live isolated, in crates, might not be fed the best food, or kept clean or get proper medical attention. They don’t get loving attention.

Even if you can’t have a dog, you can still hang out with them.

Mobile Mutts is a fantastic locally based dog rescue operation. That’s where I got one of our two rescue dogs. Volunteers transport dogs from southern states where there tends to be less municipal money and more high-kill shelters to the far north where there are no-kill shelters. Our Tree Walker Hound, Lil, was found in a field in Kentucky, put in a shelter and scheduled for euthanasia when she was put on the Underdog Railroad. I mean, Mobile Mutts. And, yep, we got her.

Many dogs need adopting—dogs who live on the streets, retired greyhound racers, beagles used in science experiments, dogs in shelters.

As a “dog champion” you might inform classmates about puppy mill conditions, write letters to congressmen about the plight of puppy mill dogs, volunteer at the Humane Society, overnight dogs for Mobile Mutts, make a documentary film.

As Laidlaw says, “Anyone can be a dog champion. Just make a commitment to help and then get going.” Dogs everywhere are counting on you.

—

Here’s the link to Mobile Mutts–a great starting place to become a “dog champion.”

http://mobile-mutts.org/Upcoming_Transports.html

So here’s Lil, who came up on Mobile Mutt’s transport, June 2, 2012. I over-nighted her and fell totally head-over-heels in love. She looked like a xylophone, all ribs showing, weighing in at 40 pounds. She was meek, glued to my side, not in need of a leash when outside. She wasn’t going anywhere.

Besides her dog food, I fed her while I was cutting veggies for dinner. She ate cauliflower, broccoli,  tomatoes, carrot, everything I offered her.

So it was about then that I called my traveling husband, Morgan, to say I’d fallen in love, and had–HAD–to adopt this Tree Walker Hound. What could he say?

I asked Marion Stevens who is the fantastic base camp operator for Mobile Mutts in Champaign, if I could adopt my xylophone girl. She said I’d have to put my girl back on the transport, that is send her up  to Redemption Rescue in Minnesota. They OWNED her, and she might already be spoken for. Clearly

this was the Underdog Railroad. Follow the northern star and all that.

So, I sent my girl off to the next leg of her journey, to Kankakee, weeping. But that’s not unusual. We “over-nighters” all seem to fall for our overnight charges. Marion said she was working on my plea, trying to get in touch with the people at Redemption Rescue in Minnesota. I went back to bed, still crying, with my phone tucked under my pillow.

And in about an hour or so, Marion called to say, the Tree Walker Hound was mine, and to meet her at the drop off point (St. Thomas Moore H.S. parking lot)  in about another two hours. So Marion brought her back to me from Kankakee. My xylophone doggy and I lay in the grass together, just loving each other.

It so happened that my husband Morgan was on his way home from Texas with Shanti, who had been part of a family of three adults and three dogs and now everyone was dispersing. A week prior, we’d agreed to take Shanti. So now we had two rescued dogs–an unplanned Parenthood– life was about to change.

That first night we were all together, we named xylophone girl, Lil–after Lil Hardin Armstrong–Louis Armstrong’s wife and jazz pianist. The second day, Lil gained some confidence, the third day, more. And not on a leash, she chased the ducks through and around the lake. Next day, she bolted again, so now we use a leash.

The first three weeks were a bit stressful, but also magnificent. And now it’s all magnificent. We’re a family of four. We go to the dog park twice each day–sometimes three times–and take walks in the neighborhood at night. Lil has gained 6 pounds, looks terrific. Shanti has lost 4 pounds, which has improved her health and svelte beauty. And as a matter of fact, we’ve lost weight, too. All those walks.

No way will Lil eat cauliflower or broccoli now. Clearly she’d been eating anything and everything when she was on her own and I realized that on that first night together, if I thought carrots were worth eating, then so did she. But Lil has a mind of her own now. Both Lil and Shanti are the most affectionate girls I know.

Let me recommend that you become a “dog champion.”

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author. Her book, Joséphine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker (Chronicle Books) will come out January 2014. Her book about Lil Hardin Armstrong, Struttin’ With Some Barbecue, is still seeking a publisher.

 

It’s not easy for sixth grader, Jordan, who is an average violin player, not terribly pretty, not a great student, can’t play chess worth a darn—when there are people in her class who are terrific at all those things. Besides, it’s sweltering hot at the end of the year and her central Illinois school has no a/c in “About Average” by Andrew Clements (2012).

“Average” Jordan has mistakenly discarded a list of what she’s great at (not much). Marlea reads it aloud in the girl’s restroom to humiliate our heroine. Babysitting is at the top of the list. The other girls laugh, Jordan is bereft, but we, the readers, are afforded a look inside Jordan’s exquisite thought process—what she’d like to see happen and how she arrives at those wishes.

The author writes, “Jordan’s memory was a powerful force. A moment from the past would sneak up and kidnap her and then force her to think about it until she discovered something she didn’t know she knew.”

Her thought process seems so familiar, so real. It takes a fine author like Clements to uncover the inner workings of this realistic, flawed and loveable heroine. When she’s accused of cheating at chess, we’re told “she sure wouldn’t have wasted any criminal talent on something as pointless as winning a game of chess.”

She has a crush on Jonathan and she has to admit that it’s because he’s so cute. Which make her just as shallow as Jonathan, who likes pretty girls—prettier girls than Jordan. Still she’s sure Jonathan is a good person. Anyway, she would like him even if “he enjoyed ripping the arms off of teddy bears.” Which is something Jordan did once as revenge when her big sister pulled the head off her Barbie doll.

Jordan decides to experiment with forgiveness. In answer to Marlea’s ongoing meanness, she decides to respond with “…industrial-strength niceness. Awesome niceness. Award-winning niceness.”

It’s not easy, but she answers each of Marlea’s quips with just that—awesome niceness. It stops Marlea’s attacks and sets us up for the grand ending when some full blown central Illinois weather whips into town. As a result of her actions, Jordan wins some industrial strength respect.

Besides the pleasure of being inside Jordan’s head, the reader will get a taste of central Illinois, its weather (oh boy), and glimpses of the local blue and orange. Yes, Clements lives in Massachusetts, but he once lived in Illinois.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author.

 

In “Kindred Souls” by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper Collins-Katherine Tegen 2011) 10 year old Jake lives on the prairie with his family, including his beloved 88 year old grandfather, Billy. When his grandfather longs for the sod house in which he grew up, Jake resists Billy’s idea of building such a house.

A sweet dog appears whom old Billy names Lucy. When Billy is rushed to the hospital Lucy is bereft. Jake, at first, reluctantly, helps his older siblings cut squares of sod, to build the house in hopes that Billy might recover.

MacLachlan (Newbery Medalist for “Sarah, Plain and Tall”) is a master of the seemingly simple and understated. This small book of large print, barely more than 100 pages, runs deep. What a great accomplishment it could be for a new reader to read this serious, at times joyful, profound book.

For a more advanced reader, try the novel, “The Friendship Doll” by Kirby Larson (Delacorte 2010) at 200 pages. Miss Kanagawa was one of 57 dolls sent from Japan to the children of the U.S. in 1927 as a diplomatic offering. That part is fact.

Miss Kanagawa begins the story in a haughty voice, but as she changes the lives of four American girls that span the time of the Great Depression, so, too, does her heart change. Each character comes alive on the page, starting with Bunny from New York City, a privileged child jealous of her friend. Miss Kanagawa helps avert an act of revenge. A few years later Lois Brown of Downer’s Grove, Illinois, encounters the doll at Chicago’s Century of Progress World’s Fair of 1933. The doll is the catalyst for Lois’ epiphany of generosity.

In 1937, the doll shows up at a rich, spoiled woman’s home in Kentucky and comforts the loveable back woods Willie Mae, who has come to read for the old woman. Next Lucy travels the rough road from dust bowl Oklahoma, 1939, with her father to California where she encounters Miss Kanagawa. Finally, Mason encounters the somewhat frayed doll in his attic in present day Washington, at which point the reader discovers Lucy’s fate. It’s a satisfying twist to the story.

In the end matter we’re told that of the 57 original dolls, 13 are missing today. The author challenges her readers to help find those missing friendship dolls. Check out the attic for starters.

It’s difficult not to compare the book to “Hitty Her First Hundred Years” by Rachel Field (1929), winner of a Newbery Medal. Hitty is a wooden doll carved early in the 19^th century, who lives with her various owners in far flung parts of the world and for awhile is lost under the sea.

All three books are well worth reading.

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author. Her book in verse, “Joséphine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker” (Chronicle) will come out January 2014.

 

If you want a good laugh, a chortle, a chuckle, read “Unseen Guest” by Maryrose Woods (Scholastic 2010), the third in the series of “The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place.” Really you should start with the first, “The Mysterious Howling” then “The Hidden Gallery.”

If you’ve already read them listen to the book on disc read by Katherine Kellgren (Listening Library). Kellgren’s regal over-the-top oh-so-dramatic reading is uproarious. What a terrific pairing—Wood’s writing and Kellgren’s reading. This would be a great book on a family trip where everyone could listen to the same thing. Together.

The overarching story is that of three children who were raised by wolves and are being educated to become more child-like, less doggy. The job falls to teenaged governess Miss Penelope Lumley who herself has been educated at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. But who are these children really?

In the “Unseen Guest,” plucky Penelope must divert a money-hungry admiral from making her wolfy students–Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia Incorrigible–into a circus sideshow. And if that weren’t enough, she does her work while they are all hunting down the admiral’s runaway ostrich through the English countryside.

The children, having been raised by wolves, are remarkably fine trackers. And we learn a little about their former lives as wolves, but the mystery is still…well, mysterious.

The reader receives smashing good advice handed down from the Academy’s founder, Agatha Swanburne, such as: “Nest eggs do not hatch unless you sit on them for a good long time.”

And in the course of this Victorian melodrama, we are educated to Victorian ways. For instance, after dinner the gentlemen retire to the study for cigars and brandy. The children’s guardian, Lord Ashton says, “Let the ladies play whist, or stitch advice onto pillows, or whatever it is they do when we’re not around.”

I giggled throughout, but I let out a particularly rude guffaw when Lady Constance Ashton saw a mouse and “let out a squeak that only a bat could hear.”

I’ve reviewed the first and second of the series in April 2011. That’s how good it is. I’m steering it your way again, but this time you might want to listen to it.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author.

 

Franny, eleven, is enduring, not fire drills, but duck-and-cover drills at school, in the event of an atomic bomb attack. I remember no such drills from my childhood, but Franny lives outside Andrews Air Force Base, Washington DC, which would be a prime target and we’re in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962, when the U.S.S.R. is threatening to strike the U.S.A.

The novel “Countdown” by Deborah Wiles (Scholastic 2010) begins with “documentary footage” of 1962 America. Handsome charismatic John F. Kennedy is quoted as saying, “We have enough missiles to blow you up thirty times over.” Nikita Khrushchev, Head of the U.S.S.R., on the facing page says, “We have enough to blow you up only once, but that will be enough for us.” The world is in the midst of cold war. Who remembers Khrushchev with a witty comeback?

Franny’s big sister is attending college in DC and involved in mysterious endeavors to “change the world.” What she’s actually doing remains mysterious. Interspersed throughout the book are more “documentary” pages that give the reader the context of the times. And so much was happening. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, for instance.

Franny’s little brother Drew is a “saintly” child, but Franny manages to get him to tell a lie, to the extreme grief of her strict, cigarette-smoking, smart mother. I’m delighted to find a formidable mother in a middle grade novel. Franny’s father is a major in the Air Force with the task to “keep America safe.”

Crazy Uncle Otts tries to build a fallout shelter in the front yard. The nation is frozen in the grips of fear while Franny’s fears are those of a fifth grader—her best friend has chosen another, her adored sister is absent, an odd embarrassing uncle, plus the realization of her world in great change.

The documentary pages include advertisements for fallout shelters, lyrics to songs, young Bob Dylan, TV celebrities, the glorious first lady Jackie Kennedy, maps, political cartoons headlines, Havana. This is a very cool format that both kids and adults will appreciate. It gives the context of the times, deepening our understanding of the story. We’re getting the top internet hits delivered just as we need them.

This semi-autobiographical documentary novel is the first in Wiles’ trilogy of the 60’s.

 

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancer, storyteller, librarian and children’s book author.