An often pleasant slice of a dog’s life.
In Hanser’s (The ESL Student’s Grammar HELP! Student Handbook, 2014, etc.) novel, a charismatic canine recovers from an accident and steals his human family’s heart.
This sweet dog tale, narrated by Joey the chocolate Labrador retriever, is based on true events, according to the author. As a young pup, Joey is adopted by a new family—Mom, Dad, and little girl Vivi—and lives a rambunctious, happy life of rascally hole-digging and crazy escapes from the fenced backyard. The author scatters lovely color photographs throughout of the real-life Joey, his family, and even a friendly animal control employee’s truck. One sad day, the energetic dog digs through the fence and gets hit by a car. In addition to his other injuries, his ankle is broken, requiring surgery and a temporary splint. He then starts off on a slow road to recovery with the family. Joey’s first-person narration is upbeat but not always consistent. Sometimes, his speech is cute and simple: “My parents have a lot of rules for me. They have rules for whether I can jump up on the sofa or not.” At other times, though, his language is oddly stilted; for example, after he unsuccessfully tries to convince Dad to let him go for a run, he exclaims: “So many subsequent mornings I arose with hope, only to settle into a sense of failure and disappointment.” Unimaginative daily details regarding the humans’ rituals slow the plot. Some events contain asides with forgettable, uninteresting information, such as the details of Joey’s lineage. The book’s strength, though, is its humorous comparisons of humans’ and dogs’ expectations; Joey, for example, thinks that the sound of a training clicker means that it’s time to play a game involving running away. These witty contrasts will elicit chuckles, particularly from readers with high-maintenance pets. Despite the book’s uneven structure, dog lovers will find that they have a soft spot for Joey’s nonstop energy and fun-loving personality.
An often pleasant slice of a dog’s life.Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9915149-2-2
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Ivy Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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