A moving tribute to shelter dogs, the humans who love them, and the wisdom of looking beyond outward appearances.
A lonely canine gets a new lease on life in this picture book.
Sam is an adult shelter dog who dreams of having a family. He wonders if the reason the young pups get adopted instead of him, when he’s already trained to fetch and sit, is because he has a crooked leg. When an elderly man who walks with a cane visits the shelter, he recognizes Sam as a kindred spirit. Sam is thrilled, but his hopes are dashed when he realizes that his new home is a small shack next to a junkyard instead of the mansion he imagined. But as the man says: “We both know that sometimes things aren’t what they seem.” Sam soon discovers joy and “treasures” at the messy junkyard, finding a purpose, friends, and love. Sam’s initial struggle to see past the first impressions of his new life, despite having been the subject of that same type of scrutiny, rings true, and the sage old man’s words form the core of this touching story. Sky’s (Santa’s Dog, 2018, etc.) rhyming stanzas scan beautifully throughout, making this an easy read-aloud for group sharing. The rescue tale also features a vocabulary that’s approachable for newly independent readers. Tatulli’s (Fireworks in the Night, 2016) playful cartoon art, populated by animals and humans of all colors and ages, captures Sam’s spirit perfectly.
A moving tribute to shelter dogs, the humans who love them, and the wisdom of looking beyond outward appearances.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9998430-4-8
Page Count: 25
Publisher: Dogs & Books
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dramatic skill and rich historical details make for a successful YA book, especially for readers with a particular interest...
Based on the reminiscences of Varble’s late husband, this young-adult novella describes a 6-year-old boy’s adventures in Simi Valley in the summer of 1934.
Recounting the adventures of Johnny, son of a tenant farmer during the Great Depression, the novella is as much a portrait of Simi Valley between the world wars as it is a portrayal of a boy’s awakening to an adult world. Rich in vivid historical detail—e.g., Johnny is born on March 11, 1928, the day before Francis Mullholland’s Saint Francis Dam fails, drowning hundreds in what remains one of the state’s greatest losses of life—the novella is also a deft sketch of a rural American life that has largely disappeared. Executed with a historian’s eye, Varble draws on research and recollection to vividly evoke Johnny’s family and valley life, including a cavalcade of colorful local figures, from the voluptuous Aunt Belle, to an Okie family fleeing the “black blizzards” of the Dust Bowl (storms which tripled in frequency from 14 in 1932 to 52 in 1934), to Andy, Johnny’s father’s friend who returns from San Quentin after serving time for the murder of his wife. While the characterizations can be overly simple, the details of time and place are often riveting: the harvesting of barley, the lighting of a wood stove, California “car culture” before licenses were commonplace, the hunting of a mountain lion. In prose as simple as a Hemingway story, the novella offers young readers a glimpse of an almost unimaginably unplugged world. Brief chapters keep the book fleet-footed even as they credibly reveal crucial steps to maturity—from curiosity to desire, from loss to altruism. The reader’s awareness of fascism’s rise in Europe—and Johnny’s likely future as a soldier—lends gravity to a tale that might otherwise seem a nostalgic look back at simpler times.
Dramatic skill and rich historical details make for a successful YA book, especially for readers with a particular interest in California.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477276976
Page Count: 130
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The lone-wolf-finds-love YA formula, tweaked and reshaped with a poet’s sensibilities.
A dark and complex young-adult fantasy of love, longing and war.
Roberts’ remarkably accomplished, involving (if lamentably titled) YA novel centers on Fang—a nightmare embodied in the form of a large, ferocious black dog with the thoughts, feelings and soul of a classic teen-novel bad-boy hero. Fang inhabits the Dark—a shifting, kaleidoscopic landscape inhabited by other nightmares, demons and brawling angels—where his “Muse” sits all day sad and silent in her ramshackle house, indifferent to Fang’s feelings for her. Fang’s existence as a stalker of other people’s dreams is being challenged from multiple directions (and by multiple females)—his indifferent Muse, the dreaming mortal girl Anna, and even Lily, a demon with hair like “blood” and a surprisingly romantic heart (“I’d trade a house full of regular flowers for just one,” Lily tells our hero, “if it was picked because it was perfect for me”). Complicating matters at the outset is Fang’s friend Jeffery, who concocts a scheme to radically extend the reach and power of the Dark—a plan that eventually upsets the delicate balance of power in the supernatural realm and sparks a war. Scene-stealer Baal heads the team of bad angels. He contemptuously tells one of the good guys, “Not all of us spend every night praying we could lick our Father’s boots again.” Roberts charges virtually every scene with tension and some refreshingly unsentimental dialogue, and the underpinning worldbuilding is complex and convincing. Through adroit pacing, distinctive characters (especially Fang himself, who’s the perfect balance of tough and tender) and some quite lovely prose, he crafts a story of surprising emotional punch.
The lone-wolf-finds-love YA formula, tweaked and reshaped with a poet’s sensibilities.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2013
ISBN: 9781620070802
Page Count: 277
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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