Suzanne loves saving animals—crayfish, chipmunks, birds, tadpoles, snakes, turtles—but what she really wants is a dog. She imagines sitting on her dock on Chapman Lake in northeastern Pennsylvania with her large tan-and-black dog named Jeff; one day such a dog miraculously shows up. Love at first sight, except for parents who know how much work dogs are, a brother who’s allergic, and a sister who’s not responsible. When Jeff eats the neighbors’ rhubarb patch, destroys Mr. Fisher’s model train set, fathers mutts with Reid Wilmot’s prize bird dog, has a tussle with the mailman, and finds himself painted green, Jeff’s days with Suzanne are numbered. This mostly true story is written with style, humor, and empathy. In the final scene, Dr. Speicher tells Mrs. Fisher that Suzanne “has an active imagination, and that might turn out to be a good thing someday,” and that has been Staples’s gift to the world of children’s literature. (Fiction. 8-12)
