THE STREET'S DOGS

A girl makes it her mission to rescue stray dogs in this debut children’s book.

Sofia, a 5-year-old girl living in Gutta City, notices some puppies on the street and their mother shivering in the cold rain. The girl wants to help them, but her mother, Anna, says there’s nothing to be done. After one of the puppies gets run over, Sofia is sad and starts playing with the dogs every day and feeding them. When Robert, her father, finds out, he orders her to stop because his brother was bitten by a rabid canine and died. But when two “hooligans,” members of a gang that kidnaps and sells children, try to abduct Sofia, the dogs save her. Robert and Anna decide to adopt the canines; further, they get money from a charity to catch strays and take them to their farm. A worker the family hires starts to train the animals for tasks such as guarding or racing. Now 11, Sofia sees that the dogs have varying success; some run away, preferring life on the street. Eventually, even canine haters start adopting them. In his book, Manral offers a compassionate message, with many examples of how people can help strays. But he tells a disjointed and often upsetting story that includes such details as puppies being “crushed” by vehicles or kidnapped children being sold “to the market.” The setting is apparently India; non-Indian readers may be confused by some details (for example, dogs pulling “ice buggies”) or vocabulary (dacoits, which means bandits). The text is often confusing, due to faults like tense shifts, or simply incoherent: “They tried to make Robert understand that the reason was behind the dog was mad after the hit from he got afraid.” The uncredited illustrations are flat and generic, with skimpy backgrounds and pale-skinned characters.

A tale delivers a poignant be-kind-to-animals message, unpleasant images, and muddled storytelling.