Jennifer Li Shotz

Really enjoyed the book. Not in the category of top 100 books on dogs ever written, but lots of fun. It felt like a made for movie book that could be accomplished within the confines of 90 minutes. The book was a quick read. Some familiar themes but done well; misunderstanding but loving parents, dog that has to be rehabilitated, danger that the dog has to be a part of saving the day. Definitely something a youth would appreciate with elements of computer games, goth-like girlfriend, and show more dirt bikes.
Those wanting to pick at things may point out that the dog would have had a hard time being turned over to civilians. It might be a little hard for the bad guys in the movie to get what they were selling. I am not sure if a dog trained for the military would be able to take on a couple of Rotties in the way he did, but I want to believe. None of it bothered me, but for those who want to mention those kind of details I wanted to say I noticed them.

As I said, a quick and fun read and an especially good book for a youth. show less

Scout National Hero was a great book, and I enjoyed it even more than her book Hero which I also liked. I like how her writing always seems to be solid and just the right amount of everything. I love how she weaves a dog into the story, although it is almost always the human aspects that make a dog book good.

In this book, the main character, Matt, has moved to Nevada as his mom is taking over commanding a National Guard base. His father is deployed overseas. She gets in a new dog recruit, show more named Scout, for their K9 Search and Rescue team. They tie in the other book by her relating what she was told about the dog, “she said Scout grew up with the finest search-and-rescue dog she’s ever known—a black Lab named Hero. He’s a legend. Anyway, Janine said Scout has the same skills.”

The right kind of dog for the work is described as “The perfect combination was an energetic dog who would chase the same toy again and again—who, in fact, was almost impossible to distract from that toy.” Unfortunately, it looks like Scout doesn’t quite fit all the qualifications.

With a name like ‘National Hero’ in the title, you know there is going to be at least one or more opportunities for the dog to save the day. I never get tired of this story and the book finds some unique ways to bring it about because of a flood to the city. It was able to make me feel emotion welling up as I really got into the story.

The book had fun with the main rescue as he goes to rescue his sister. We have gone from a time when the hero, who was almost always a guy, must go rescue the girl. Now we have got used to the opposite where the heroes more often must be women, or at least find a way to save themselves. So, when it looked like in this book Matt will save the girl, I was thinking, ‘Oh, maybe they will do it like they did before.’ The author however finds an interesting way to twist things in a different way.

One thing that Jennifer Li Shotz does superbly is help demonstrate the thinking of boys that get them into trouble. It was the same in the book Hero, but here it is a different motivation:

‘Kids who grew up in one place spent their days with people who knew them. They didn’t have to explain who they were—they just got to be themselves. But kids like Matt had to show people who they were, again and again.’

So having to prove themselves is one thing that can push a kid into doing something reckless. Then another thing that can relate to mistakes of judgement is mentioned well in this passage:

‘Matt felt a familiar sensation growing in his chest. He tried to will it away—it was a feeling that had gotten him into trouble many times before: impatience.’

Her books are so good at teaching kids’ important lessons without feeling preachy. If I had any younger children, I would want them to be reading her books. First they are great fun, but it also helps import some wisdom that is better than my way of just telling my kids ‘don’t be stupid.’

There are some minor aspects worth discussing. Do schools have climbing walls? I thought fear of litigation was keeping all the fun stuff out. Do kids nowadays, outside of with their parents, want to go find tough climbs to do? I remember climbing ‘hole in the rock’ in Arizona, but I am not sure of the way it is portrayed in the book with them having the right knowledge and gear to do things on their own without supervision. Just some little thoughts I had while reading and maybe someone with climbing knowledge and kids doing it could help with a comment.

I am trying to go broad and read book 1 of all the series that include dogs. With this one I will have read book one in her three series (Hero #1, National Hero #1, and American Dog #1), but I like her books so much I have already purchased other books in the series and will probably read them before I go on too many other series book ones. Her books are fun and quick reads which are easier to want to get to before weightier books.

I deliberated on whether I should include this or any of her other books in my list of favorites, I don’t see any great passages I want to copy and save forever but just good solid writing put together to form great stories. Her ability to display and to learn from the motivations that lead boys astray is wonderful. That could check the box on those who look for some profound lesson on life. The dog part is always well told, with her details of search and rescue always feeling very accurate. Since this book feels like my favorite so far, I am going to include it in my shelf ‘dogs-favorite-books’ because it is a great book, but also to represent all her books I have loved so far. show less

Scout National Hero was a great book, and I enjoyed it even more than her book Hero which I also liked. I like how her writing always seems to be solid and just the right amount of everything. I love how she weaves a dog into the story, although it is almost always the human aspects that make a dog book good.

In this book, the main character, Matt, has moved to Nevada as his mom is taking over commanding a National Guard base. His father is deployed overseas. She gets in a new dog recruit, show more named Scout, for their K9 Search and Rescue team. They tie in the other book by her relating what she was told about the dog, “she said Scout grew up with the finest search-and-rescue dog she’s ever known—a black Lab named Hero. He’s a legend. Anyway, Janine said Scout has the same skills.”

The right kind of dog for the work is described as “The perfect combination was an energetic dog who would chase the same toy again and again—who, in fact, was almost impossible to distract from that toy.” Unfortunately, it looks like Scout doesn’t quite fit all the qualifications.

With a name like ‘National Hero’ in the title, you know there is going to be at least one or more opportunities for the dog to save the day. I never get tired of this story and the book finds some unique ways to bring it about because of a flood to the city. It was able to make me feel emotion welling up as I really got into the story.

The book had fun with the main rescue as he goes to rescue his sister. We have gone from a time when the hero, who was almost always a guy, must go rescue the girl. Now we have got used to the opposite where the heroes more often must be women, or at least find a way to save themselves. So, when it looked like in this book Matt will save the girl, I was thinking, ‘Oh, maybe they will do it like they did before.’ The author however finds an interesting way to twist things in a different way.

One thing that Jennifer Li Shotz does superbly is help demonstrate the thinking of boys that get them into trouble. It was the same in the book Hero, but here it is a different motivation:

‘Kids who grew up in one place spent their days with people who knew them. They didn’t have to explain who they were—they just got to be themselves. But kids like Matt had to show people who they were, again and again.’

So having to prove themselves is one thing that can push a kid into doing something reckless. Then another thing that can relate to mistakes of judgement is mentioned well in this passage:

‘Matt felt a familiar sensation growing in his chest. He tried to will it away—it was a feeling that had gotten him into trouble many times before: impatience.’

Her books are so good at teaching kids’ important lessons without feeling preachy. If I had any younger children, I would want them to be reading her books. First they are great fun, but it also helps import some wisdom that is better than my way of just telling my kids ‘don’t be stupid.’

There are some minor aspects worth discussing. Do schools have climbing walls? I thought fear of litigation was keeping all the fun stuff out. Do kids nowadays, outside of with their parents, want to go find tough climbs to do? I remember climbing ‘hole in the rock’ in Arizona, but I am not sure of the way it is portrayed in the book with them having the right knowledge and gear to do things on their own without supervision. Just some little thoughts I had while reading and maybe someone with climbing knowledge and kids doing it could help with a comment.

I am trying to go broad and read book 1 of all the series that include dogs. With this one I will have read book one in her three series (Hero #1, National Hero #1, and American Dog #1), but I like her books so much I have already purchased other books in the series and will probably read them before I go on too many other series book ones. Her books are fun and quick reads which are easier to want to get to before weightier books.

I deliberated on whether I should include this or any of her other books in my list of favorites, I don’t see any great passages I want to copy and save forever but just good solid writing put together to form great stories. Her ability to display and to learn from the motivations that lead boys astray is wonderful. That could check the box on those who look for some profound lesson on life. The dog part is always well told, with her details of search and rescue always feeling very accurate. Since this book feels like my favorite so far, I am going to include it in my shelf ‘dogs-favorite-books’ because it is a great book, but also to represent all her books I have loved so far. show less

Really enjoyed the book! I contemplated putting it in my shelf for favorites but came just shy of doing that. The book has so many aspects that be what I would want to write into a dog book.

It is a youth book, and it has enough of all the good qualities of a youth getting a dog without being preachy or going too long on the details.

For a youth book, it has so many great elements. Dylan, the high school kid in the book, rescues a dog, that we find out later is a Blue Lacy, (more on that show more breed later.) He has a mom who he must convince to keep the dog. The dog does some damage at his home. He must earn the right to keep the dog. He must learn how to train the dog. He makes mistakes with the dog. To me it seems like there is just the right amount put into each of these elements for the size and pacing of the book.

As a teenage boy, he makes a fair number of poor choices he has to learn from. I can identify with that as I made a fair number of poor choices a teenager. I think especially a young reader would benefit from reading this book and learning from the characters mistakes.

I have been reading a lot of vintage books for a while, including ones for all ages, so another point of interest is how cell phones and social media are worked into this book so you know it is current. I can see where kids may want to do something to post on social media to see how many views it can rack up. This includes to do some things that are not safe to video and post. Also in vintage books it is easy to think when there is a life threatening situation that now we would whip out a cell phone and get help. Still an author can get around that when there is no cell signal or the battery dies to force your characters to figure out how to deal with the situation on their own. At least nice to see kids call in to their parents to let them know they are ok when they can reach a signal.

At the end of the book there is information on Lacy dogs. faster, energetic, and hard-working dogs who can be used for herding cattle. it was developed in Texas around 1858. the Lacy brothers were trying to breed the perfect herding dog for free-roaming hogs. they come in a three colors, Blue, red and tricolored. They were recognized as a 'tree Texas breed' and in 2005 named the official state dog breed of Texas. This book makes me almost want to go out and get one, but then I feel like I would need to get a herd of cattle to go with it to give it something to do. Or maybe a herd of hogs...

So nice positive story. Very good dog story. No Kleenex needed at the end of the book. I am looking forward to reading more of her books. show less