Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

I read this book back in elementary school, and it really stuck with me. This is back when animal abuse wasn't as widely recognized or discussed, so this novel was groundbreaking in some ways. The story revolves around a boy who rescues a mistreated dog from a cruel older man. The man wants the dog back, so our protagonist attempts to hide him and keep him safe. This deals with animal abuse in a realistic way, since the abuser sees the dog as his property to do with as he pleases, and while show more the boy's parents feel bad for him, they must also obey the law, so this is a realistic book that isn't all happy-dappy in the resolution of the conflict. A must-read for any child! show less

A provocative story of a boy who has to figure out what is right and wrong, when to save the life of the dog would be right according to the boy's understanding of what feels right, and what would Jesus do, etc., and wrong according to the law, because the dog does not belong to him.

It's a contemporary and historical story both, in that the people who live up in the mountains are bound by tradition, isolated, poor... but there are people in town who are much better off (one friend's family show more even has a computer).

All the contrasts of right/wrong, rich/poor, traditional/modern, gentle/strict, etc., would lead to excellent discussions in a classroom or homeschooling family. They're laid out naturally all through the story as our boy has to negotiate through them.

And then the end reveals how things are never quite that simple. It's not a matter of this or that, but rather this *and* that.Judd isn't purely wicked. The family turns out not to be quite so poor that they can't find scraps for a dog. The town boy loves visiting the mountain home of our family. Etc. show less

*Review contains spoilers*

I'm not familiar with Naylor's work, so had no expectations, other than liking the sound of the blurb, which paints it as a simple growing up/teenage love/finding your own way in life story, with a fair bit of Christian faith thrown in. The structure of the blurb worried me a little - a tad Virginia Andrews - and the first half of the book had me presuming that it was just a re-working of that standard of Regency romance plots: find the two people who fight all the show more time, and they will end up together at the end. So the *actual* story kind of snuck up on me.

When it comes right down to it, this is a book about how a family and a community cope with a single, small disaster - that of the cot-death of an 8 week old baby. We see the events through the eyes of Evie, the 16 year old second child of the local minister and the local midwife, who goes to spend the summer with her cousin, who is expecting a baby a few weeks after she arrives. The cousin doesn't live far away, but there has been some event that has meant that she and her husband don't come to visit anymore, a story that gets gently explored through the story (see, Virginia Andrews worry).

So, Evie has been learning about love, and betrayal of friends, and all those kinds of normal teenage angst things, up to that point. Plus, she has been learning about babies, and coming to love her cousin's child. When the child dies, it causes a reasonably cliched ripple of events through the community, including causing Evie to doubt her thus far unquestioning faith.

Not only do I think that this is an amazing book with respect to the issues already mentioned, but it is an amazingly good book about faith, and religion, and the differences between the two. It is good to read a book that treats any religion with respect and understanding, as well as not being overbearing or preachy, and this one really manages that fine line. It doesn't change my beliefs, but it did give me the feeling that I have more understanding of aspects of the Christian religion, which was pretty amazing, given that it is a fairly minor part of the story.

As to plot, characterisation, world-building? Good pacing on the plot, especially on the twists, fabulous characterisation - without the caricature that sometimes happens with teenager protagonists, and I have no fault with the world-building. And the 'show don't tell' about everything was fabulous. Oh, and dialogue that *never* made me want to scream. show less

The first chapter threw me a bit, with Alice looking back over the 'mistakes' of her past, but once she moved into the present, I was entirely charmed by her voice. Alice is 11, starting at a new school, and wants terribly not to do anything awful, and to find a mother. Needels to say these two wishes do not come true - and plenty of hilarity happens all round. I loved Alice's relationship with her father and brother, and her interactions with the teachers at her school were wonderfully show more written. I didn't find it dated, and I look forward to reading the rest of the book in the series. I'd give this to tweens looking for realistic, funny stories. show less