Book Review: My Life in Dog Years (dogs, of course)

My Life in Dog Years, by Gary Paulsen (Yearling Nonfiction, $6.99 PB, ages 8-12, grades 3-7, 144 pages, 1999) Review by Skye Anderson 

Somehow, I bet you are familiar with the title, My Life in Dog Years, and may have seen this book in bookstores, but you probably haven't read it. 

Yet. 

Do. Read it.

It's worth it, for a lazy Sunday afternoon, and, even with interruptions, will take only an hour or two. Unless you are reading to your child or he is reading to you.

Then listen to the CD here.

Born around 1940, Gary Paulsen, a Newbery award winner, lived in 'the olden times' when dogs (and boys) ran loose in small towns. He had a dog, Snowball, when his dad was stationed in the Philippines after World War 2, then another dog in small town Minnesota, then in larger towns in Minnesota, then in the country in Minnesota and Colorado and New Mexico - I have probably mixed up these locations (I didn't take notes while reading - I just enjoyed the book) because they played only a minor role in the saga of a boy and his dog(s).

Stories of unforgettable dogs. Meet them here in Paulsen's book. 

I read this years ago and still remember three of the dogs. There was: 

Cookie who saved his life, 

Snowball in the tropics, 

Dirk who saved him from being beat up as a kid by bullies, 

Rex the 24/7 farm dog who constantly patrolled the farm and herded the kids, 

Caesar the great gentle Great Dane who knocked over the couch, 

Fred the five dollar "destructo" pup, 

Quincy who moved on to a better match and became just a regular old dog, 

Josh, the smartest dog in the world, the quintessential Border Collie who epitomized the phrase, "Watch one, Do one, Teach one" (without the teaching), 

and my all-time fave, Ike, who went home to someone who needed him more (and this chapter is a tear-jerker, but a sweet one)!