Skip to main content

Storm Dog

Image
By



Storm Dog 
By Laura Elliott 
Katherine Tegen Books, HarperCollins Publishers, 2020. 225 p. 

Ariel is the youngest of three kids. There is George who is deployed to Afghanistan, Gloria who has just graduated from high school and is known for her beauty—in fact has just been named an Apple Blossom Princess for a big parade. Then there is the younger Ariel. Ariel who is too smart for her own good (and thus tends to only get scorn from her mother and sister and hardly any notice from her father). After one bitter family confrontation Ariel heads into the woods of the Blue Ridge Mountains—even though there is a coming storm. There Ariel discovers Duke, a German shepherd with PTSD-like symptoms who guides her to a cabin to wait out the storm. In that cabin Ariel meets Staff Sergeant Josie (a former Army K-9 handler) with her own case of PTSD. It is there in that cabin that Ariel starts to plan to make her own decisions and to be proud of herself—a plan which inevitably will lead to another grand (and public) display of disappointment from her mother and sister. 

This is a good book for kids who love dogs and fight for underdogs—both animals and people. There is a lot of self-discovery and hope wrapped into one spectacular dog-show of a distraction that gets the attention not only of Ariel’s parents but the whole town. Underlying issues of army veterans dealing with PTSD, what is considered right or wrong for relationships, and some race/discrimination are all thrown in for good measure. There is a lot to unpack in this story—but kids who love animals and spunky kids like Ariel will find a lot to enjoy.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

By
KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Kareem Between

By
  Kareem Between By Shifa Saltagi Safadi New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. Fiction. 324 pages.  Kareem loves football and as he gets ready to start seventh grade he dreams of someday becoming the first Syrian American NFL player. Seventh grade is not off to a great start for Kareem, after football tryouts don't go as he had planned, his best friend moves away, and his mom returns to Syria to help bring his sick grandfather to the US for treatment. So when Austin, the quarterback and coach's son, offers to talk to his dad and get Kareem on the football team in the spring, if he will cheat and do his homework for him, Kareem agrees. Kareem really wants to fit in at school and he is desperate to find a friend, but deep down he knows that doing Austin's homework isn't the right thing to do. And to make things harder, Kareem's mom asks him to be a friend to Fadi, a Syrian Christian refugee. He knows he should stand up for Fadi and help him adjust to the new school,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Faker

By
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
Post a Comment
Read more