Discovered! A Beagle Called Bella, by Wendy Orr (Macmillan, 2013, $5.99, 126pp PB, grades 2-5, ages 7-10)
Every dog has a job to do. It's the discovery of which job it is that can take time and cause heartaches in the meantime.
A young couple adopt a young Beagle from the Rainbow Street Shelter: they fall in love with Bella, the name they gave the pupster because she was so cute and smelled her way everywhere. After all, she is a beagle. But she also chewed and chewed (after all, she is a puppy) and whined and whined when left alone (she had lived with her mom and littermates all her life and was not used to being alone while Kate and Julian worked).
On The Other Hand. . . .
Tim lives with his dad but goes to California to visit his mom in her new life. Tim's dad works at the airport with sniffer dog Sherlock who is retiring so Dad has to find another dog to work with.
How all these people and dogs meet is quite a breath-taking story and you will not guess how it ends. Plus another guess of yours takes a long time to develop and you, the reader, younger or older, are on the seat of your pants waiting for the inevitable to finally happen.
We have the same wonderful characters at the Rainbow Street Shelter like Hannah. And, finally, the illustrations are so real you just want to reach out and touch them. Thank you, Patricia Castelao.
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