CITY OF DOGS

A wise and witty animal fantasy wherein none of the dogs die. A beautiful, dog mysteriously appears on young Sam’s birthday, with a mistletoe dart in her teeth and a confused but urgent sense of mission. Christened Jenny, she becomes accustomed to our world, with its electricity, automobiles and unfriendliness to dogs; and she comes to love Sam and five neighbor dogs as her own pack. But as Jenny’s memories of her old life slowly fade, Fenris the Wolf starts to howl and Ragnorak is unleashed. Now six dogs and one boy must prevent the destruction of all Nine Worlds. Nimbly threading her plot between four separate narratives and three different mythologies, Michael provokes in quick succession gasps of amazement, snorts of laughter and tears of aching grief. Above all, she clearly knows and loves dogs—not the idealized noble canines of fiction, but realistic dogs who are excitable and foolish and fearful and slow, dogs who chew papers and widdle on floors and grow old and smelly. But these dogs are also brave and loyal and loving beyond all human deserving—except when we create new worlds that are almost worthy of them, in stories like this. Simply perfect. (Fantasy. 10-14)