Vibrant stories that should amuse readers who love valiant dogs.
Antijo relates the heroic and often funny adventures of a family of Labrador retrievers in this debut book.
“There are prodigies in the dog world,” the author states in the preface to this collection of interconnected stories. Several of those canine geniuses just happen to be the ancestors of Deuce Clarence Jones, a purebred chocolate Lab. Although the dogs’ names are all real, their escapades are fictional. The first tale relates how Bubbling Bedouine, the Finnish national champion, escapes from the World Global Dog Show to woo Tendercare Muskelunge Debbie, a black Lab. Her chocolate puppies come as quite a surprise to her owners. Subsequent yarns follow one of their puppies, Tendercare Bubbling “Bucky” Buckeye, and then his puppy, Skaggs Westwood Gus. The animals’ monikers may be a mouthful, but the human characters also sport grandiose names, such as Eustis Izzielustus, a failed dog handler–turned-deckhand, and Robbier Rafferty, an unlucky bank robber. These lighthearted stories are bound to elicit more than a few laughs as they showcase the felicitous qualities and bravery of these dogs; Bucky uses his powerful nose to sniff out a thief on a plane, and Gus rescues the hapless Eustis when he falls overboard. The tales take the reader from the Snow Hotel, where getting out of bed without slippers can result in getting stuck to the icy floor, to Niagara Falls on April Fools’ Day, when daredevils are allowed to jump over the falls or ride down them in a barrel. Antijo shares intriguing details about breeding and showing champion dogs as well as captaining a cargo ship, running a fishing trawler, and even collecting pollen for drug companies. The variety of situations holds the reader’s interest, although the text can sometimes veer toward overexplanation and become repetitive, a minor flaw. The first in a series, the book ends with the arrival of Deuce Clarence Jones and a slight cliffhanger.
Vibrant stories that should amuse readers who love valiant dogs.Pub Date: June 24, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4834-5171-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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