Book Review: Pet War (dogs vs cats)

Pet War, by Allan Woodrow (Scholastic, 272 pp, $4.99 PB, grades 3-7, ages 8-11, 2015) Review by Skye Anderson.

Dogs. Boys' Best Friends.

It's the fourth week of a four week contest to earn $500 for a dog and beat your perfect older sister who wants a - cat! The suspense deepens. Will you make it? Who will win and get to choose the pet? You have certainly tried hard enough and put sports (you are a soccer star) and homework on the back burner to concentrate on beating your older sister, Lexi, Little Miss Perfect, who wants a cat! She already has a name for it - Fluffernutter! She loves to tutor* and make signs with glitter on them for sale.

First, Otto, our hero, earns money by helping shoppers take their groceries to their car until he puts a bag in the wrong car and gets fired.

    "It wasn't my fault at all, though. It was the convertible's fault. And Lexi's just because she's Lexi and everything is her fault." (p. 80)

Then he decided to bake cookies - chocolate chip cookies from a recipe. Of course the recipe calls for sugar and sugar is good so our Otto puts in four times the sugar, thinking his cookies will be four times as good.

Then he hires his smart best friend** to manage his dogwalking business but friends fight and Otto and Malcolm are no exception. During the summer, Otto had coached Malcolm on soccer and now Malcolm, besides being a math whiz was taking Otto's place on the soccer team! What else can go wrong?

Sibling Rivalry Means War!

What can go wrong, will go wrong. From beagles to border collies to Afghan hounds and mutts. Walking dogs as a kid and trading barbs with your best friend. . . . and your perfect older sister.

With 29 chapters, the book is long but you can read a chapter at a time. And the suspense builds as you earn (and lose) money and your perfect big sister does the same. Author Allan Woodrow included many really funny and original scenes and he has really hit the nail on the head as far as realistic sibling rivalry goes.

And, after all, it's all about family, even if Dad has moved out and you only get to stay with him every other weekend. And even if he always wanted a dog.

And, no, I won't tell you who won: the perfect older sister who wants a kitten or the brother who needs a dog. You will just have to read the whole book to find out! And it is all about the R-word - Responsibility.***

*As our Otto is putting up fliers for his business (You Ought to Call Otto), he sees "One sign [that] stood out because it was covered in glitter. LEXI'S AFTER SCHOOL TUTORING. It included her phone number and a drawing of some books and pencils. I taped my flier on top of it." (p. 107)

*"That's a funny thing about being a boss. It doesn't do any good if you have no one to boss. But if you boss people too much, they won't stick around to be bossed anymore. No wonder bosses make so much money. They need to get paid just to keep track of the whole thing."  (p. 194)

***"I had a calendar, although it was last year's. Still a Tuesday is a Tuesday, right? It's not like the days change names every year." (p. 135)

Note: as a dog walker and member of a professional dog walking organization, I do not recommend children walking dogs unless fully capable and trained in positive reinforcement methods and then only walking well-trained dogs

Book Review: Out of Season (middle school, sea otters, kayaking)(OT)

Out of Season, by Kari Jones (Orca Current Publishing, $10.95PB, grades 4-8, ages 9-12, 109 pp, 2012) Review by Skye Anderson.

One in a series of 42* "Orca Currents" books for middle school readers, Out of Season features a 14-year-old girl kayaker who discovers three sea otters off the coast of her California home and falls in love with the cute animals but then her father fisherman loses his boat and they hear about poachers.

What's a girl to do when she has a secret and has to disobey her mother in order to save the sea otters and her father's occupation? Can she continue to wake up before dawn and sneak out of the house to kayak to the next bay to see if the otters are still there? And what if they aren't?

Maya's older brother is in the fishing business with his dad yet still tries to boss his little sister around, but deep down inside they truly care for each other and take care of each other.

Sea Urchins vs Sea Otters

This is a tale of a hard but rewarding life, about bad guys posing as the good guys, about love for animals and family along with a rapidly accelerating plot that will turn you into a page-turner!

Other Orca Current books on my list to read include Junkyard Dog, DogWalker and Camped Out. 

Book Review: Dork Diaries 10 - Tales from a Not-So-Perfect Pet Sitter (dogs, children)

Dork Diaries 10: Tales from a Not-So-Perfect Pet Sitter, by Rachel Russell (Aladdin, 2015, 320pp, $13.99, grades 4-8, ages 8-11), 10th in a series* of 16.

Middle school girls who talk in all caps (and large print and teen lingo) and skip lines - about their antics over a little more than four days with a little budding romance thrown in and last-minute school projects that take them up to midnight to finish yet earn an A+! 

Toss in a litter of golden retrievers and their mom, homeless, and what do you get? A fast-paced story about a little sister's babysitting a classroom goldfish and giving the pups a peanut butter facial and a massage with compost-pile oil.

How would you hide a litter of pups? In your bedroom? In the janitor's closet at school? What about the absent principal's office?

And in the beginning we meet mean girl MacKenzie who transfers schools - "popular" in the one she left behind but lying about her past achievements (they aren't hers) to her new school BFFs.  The reader will wonder - why bring MacKenzie into the story in such a major way only to then not mention her at all (except for a brief mention at the end which serves as a hint of things to come - in future installments of the series).

Plenty of adorable drawings of adorable (high-fashion) middle-school girls (and puppies), some even over four pages that tell the story themselves, and a twist ending which engages the young reader and her parents - make for a fun book with real-to-life scrapes that are almost believable. 

Don't forget this is a middle school girls' diary!

Girls will want to be Nikki or Zoey or Chloe since they are our "heroes" - they manage to dig themselves out of situations that could so easily spell tragedy and grounding forever.

What Would I Change?

Our girls are not pet sitters but dog sitters!

*The beginning:

Tales from a NOT-SO-Fabulous Life

And the final diary, so far:

Tales from a NOT-SO-Batty Little Sister

Book Review: The Bone Ranger (another Monty Dog Detective novel)

The Bone Ranger, by Louisa Bennet (Clan Destine Press, 2021, 314 pp PB, $29.99 HB) Review by Skye Anderson

Ah!

We reviewed Monty & Me

by Louisa Bennet in 2021 and then received The Bone Ranger. Somehow we obtained another copy (perhaps a purchase?) but were saving it for a time when we had time to read it and really savor the story. 

Well, the time has come and now we wonder why we waited so long! 

Author Bennet (or author Monty, golden retriever) is a funny and clever mystery writer, even if they are British and hard to understand (different spelling and vocabulary). 

You will fall in love with Monty the dog on the first page. 

We guarantee it!

The Plot

Continuing on from book one in the series, we have already met our hero, Monty, and his person Rose who has secret powers (she can detect a lie: she tingles and her hands can actually become numb hearing a big enough whopper) which make her a valuable policewoman. Unfortunately, Rose is on leave from her job in order to recover emotionally from the incidents in book one (she was almost killed). 

She is itching to get back to being a detective.

Polish university students, missing dogs, a young woman's murder, parents separating and a mother drinking and flirting, a new and very shy male veterinarian, a teen gang member who is really good on the inside, a helpful rat, a magpie and a traveling squirrel with half a tail - all contribute to suspense that accelerates and will keep you up until you finish the book. 

What, or who is the Bone Ranger? A good guy, we hope.

And what's with those red Wellies (rain boots, Wellingtons) Rose is wearing on the book cover?

The Style

We, of course, love Monty - he is so smart! He solves mysteries but the difficult part is conveying that information to his person without breaking any of the Ten Dog Commandments* (edited). We a lsolove the abundant dialogue and short chapters (all 62 of them), generally alternating between Monty and a narrator.

You will love this book (and Monty) from the first page and one important fact about dogs you will learn is their incredible sense of smell. It has been said that people can identify spaghetti sauce simmering but dogs can parse out the garlic and the tomato and the basil and . . .  . And just as each person has their own signature scent, Rose can be detected in the distance if one smells vanilla and peppermint and the sea. If the scent is strong, she has been here recently: if weak, she left a while back.

Not only will the humorous/humourous writing keep you smiling but the author throws in some wild facts that are correct and that show you she has really researched her craft. (That, or she is a Renaissance woman and a polymath.)

Humor:

"I hate going to the vet's. They think they can get away with sticking a thermometer where it really shouldn't go, just because they give you a measly liver treat or two. The first time I went there I ended up with stitches and a plastic cone of shame around my neck. I can't tell you how maddening it is to have an itchy ear and not be able to scratch it. Scratching, after all, is one of the things we dogs live for."

Polymath Facts:

". . . Zofia is a very beautiful hooman. If she were a dog, she'd at least win her group at Crufts, and maybe even have a shot at Best in Show.: (p. 111)

British Vocabulary:

". . . we're zooming along the dual carriageway. . . .It is bucketing down with rain. The windscreen wipers rasp and judder because the rubber bits are worn." (p. 243)

And, we love the bright book covers!

----------------------

*1. Love your person.

2. Do what your person wants since she is a good leader.

3. Defend your person.

4. Never embarrass your person.

5. Never appear smarter than your person.

6. Never show that you understand hooman language.

7. Never be seen using hooman technology.

8. Cooperate with other creatures for peaceful purposes.

9. You may abandon a person if ordered to kill another animal for entertainment or profit, or another hooman, unless your hooman's life is at risk.

10. If  in doubt, play dumb and wag your tail.

Book Review: Dirty Thirty, A Stephanie Plum Book (hilarious crime, female bounty hunter)

Dirty Thirty, by Janet Evanovich (Atria Books, 332 pp HB, 2023, $29.99) Review by Skye Anderson

A Fun Fast Read!

I can't believe we have not reviewed Janet Evanovich yet and she has written 44 bestsellers in 27 years. Dirty Thirty is her 30th of 31 fun crime novels, starring Stephanie Plum, Grandma Mazur, the voluptuous Lula, Ranger, Joe Morelli, Bob the big orange dog (a golden retriever), and Newark, New Jersey. If you have read Kinsey Milhone (Sue Grafton's alphabet series - 25),

Travis McGee (John MacDonald's color series - 43),

and Tess Monaghan (by Baltimorean Laura Lippman's 20),

you will love Stephanie Plum.

Our gal Stephanie finds bail bond runners (she's a bounty hunter) for a living and has two boyfriends: Morelli, a cop she went to high school with, and Ranger, a former "special" soldier turned security expert with his trusty sidekick, Tank. 

The Plot

The bad guys play dirty in this story so Stephanie is bound to be tempted to, after her apartment is bombed and her car is run into - twice. It starts with a jewelry story robbery, then another. But are the gems real or fake?

With females shooting up the town, in comes one more bad guy after another (and they work together) until the reader is inundated with a complex story. The one saving grace is Bob the hungry dog who eats couches and is attached to our heroine every minute. Bob the dog is not a major character but we appreciate his mention in every scene.

Bonus

This reviewer likes short chapters (present), chapters with titles rather than just numbers (missing), and plenty of dialogue (present) but author Janet Evanovich goes one better. Each chapter has a drawing of donuts, the 'other food group'. Yet, if you look closely you will notice that the number of donuts decreases as the book progresses. 

In this, the 30th book, the author has included 30 quotes, one from each of her Stephanie Plum books. My faves are from book 6: "Nice dress. Take it off." (Morelli) and from book 8: "I'm disappointed. Usually when I'm with you a car explodes or a building burns down." (Ranger)

The 31st Stephanie Plum book will be out later this year, on November 19, Now or Never.

Book Review: The Lovely Bones (young girl disappears, tells her story)

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold (Back Bay Books, 2004, 369pp HB, $21.95) Review by Skye Anderson

How to characterize The Lovely Bones? Some have called it another To Kill a Mockingbird* but perhaps it is more in the vein of Thornton Wilder's beloved Our Town*.

The Plot

Although The Lovely Bones is more of a character development book, with many characters over a decade, rather than plot-driven, it starts with the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl and her murder as told by the girl herself, looking down from heaven and into the lives of the numerous characters: her family, her friends and budding boyfriends, the perpetrator himself, the detective. We follow each, back and forth, over nearly 10 years and see how they grow, how the community comes together, how Susie Salmon's family, once close, grows apart only to come together again in the end. It is the journey itself that is the story, and, yes, there is a dog - named Holiday.

The Style

Susie herself is the narrator. She has a lyrical adult voice yet like a child's. 

Bones is a long book that does not take long to read. It jumps around a lot, even within one chapter, which breaks up the flow but keeps you reading to find out what happens. But it is not exactly a suspenseful mystery: we know who probably did it but want to find out how the characters come to that conclusion. But we also see ourselves in so many of the players as we re-live our childhood (1973), 

How can a book about a kidnapping and a grisly murder spellbind its readers into a reflected view of love and family and growth and growing up and memories and childhood? You will simply have to read this classic to experience it (and discover the meaning of the title, too).

*

PS - There is a dog. He digs up an elbow.

Book Review: Out of Hiding (coming to America, young girl in hiding during WW2)(OT)

Out of Hiding: A Holocaust Survivor's Journey to America, by Ruth Gruener (Scholastic, 2020, $6.99 PB, 208pp, 11 years and up, grades 4-7) Review by Skye Anderson

A Hidden Childhood

Ruth Gruener, nee Luncia Gamzer, was born in Ukraine but moved to Poland with her parents when Hitler came to power. As a 9-year-old Jewish girl, she was hidden by family friends when it became too dangerous to live in their Nazi-imposed ghetto - and she was separated from her parents, only to be reunited with them much later.

This is the story of a hidden childhood and of the little girl who survived, along with her parents - both, miraculously. It is also the rarely written account of being in one displaced persons (DP) camp after another after 1945 until finally, permission was granted to emigrate to the United States.

It is also the story of their rough sea voyage to Boston in 1949 and then on to New York City, living with relatives for months and learning about America while navigating highschool.

Again, Ruth makes friends only to have to move on.

A Common yet Uncommon Account of a War, Survival and the Aftermath

Books abound about Holocaust survivors and thank goodness. However, many of them read like reports: "I did this and then I did that and then . . . . " Author Gruener writes as a young girl which creates a compelling story. Short chapters and fairly large print help make Out of Hiding a fast read.

This reviewer read faster and faster until the war ended, then got bogged down as events moved too fast and became report-like, with less depth. We also noticed the front cover is in color with the exception of the background (Boston Harbor) and pictures the harbor from a ship with the 'camera' behind the girl. We can easily depict a series of questions about Ruth's life for classroom discussions.