Skip to main content

Saving Marty

Image
By DeeDee
Saving Marty
by Paul Griffin
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2017. Fiction. 195 p.
When Lorenzo befriends a runt pig it soon becomes his constant companion.  Marty is as loyal and smart as any dog, but pigs have a way of growing, and when Marty gets to be 250 lbs, his affectionate nudges become hazardous. There are other complications in Lorenzo's life as well.  He is trying to find out what really happened to his Dad who never came back from Afghanistan, and he is struggling through a summer without his best friend, Paloma Lee. With everything else going on, Lorenzo desperately wants to save Marty from the butcher block, but at what cost?

This is a charming novel, reminiscent of White's Charlotte's Web and King-Smith's Babe: The Gallant Pig. Griffin does a good job showing Lorenzo as a boy desperately in need of a friend, but also portraying his mother's concerns for finances and safety with a sympathetic hand. Lorenzo's and Paloma's friendship is also very sweet. The audio book has some nice music included (Paloma is a singer who longs for Nashville fame). This is a feel-good book with a some heart-ache mixed in--great for a reader who is craving something a little sentimental.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

By
If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.
Post a Comment
Read more

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

By loo
Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more