With COVID-19, many families have adopted needy shelter pets. But there are still many, many animals in shelters across the country who are in need of a loving home. These three picture books will not only share why it’s rewarding to rescue a pet but also share how to train your new dog or cat, thanks to National Geographic Kids’ two training books for kids. Continue reading
In “Death Rattle,” Alex Gilly takes us to Southern California. It’s not Hollywood and stars, though. It’s undocumented immigrants and a suspicious murder at a detention center that causes Nick Finn and his wife Mona, a human-rights lawyer, to investigate. When Mona gets threats, she knows she’s on the right track.
People around the investigation begin dying. When Carmen, the young woman whom Finn rescued from a sinking boat, is bitten repeatedly by a snake in a detention center and not given appropriate medical care, she dies. Mona is determined to get justice for Carmen, who was also brutally tortured by someone in the drug cartel before she escaped Mexico.
The main characters, married couple Nick and Mona, are people we like because they are real people with foibles and backstories. Their determination to do the right thing is stirring, especially when many just want to ignore the plight of the undocumented. While there are twists at the end, to many mystery readers, the twist is easy to foresee. The foreshadowing is a bit heavy handed at times, but the overall plot is thrilling, and readers will want to know exactly how it all ends up.
Although this is the second book in the series, and I didn’t read the first one, that didn’t handicap me at all. It works fine as a stand alone novel, and I would like to read future novels in this series.
Please note: This review is based on the advance reader’s copy provided by the publisher, Forge, for review purposes.
In the adorable picture book “I Found a Kitty!” by Troy Cummings, there’s a new cat in town, and he needs a home. And Arfy, the pooch who charmed everyone in “Can I Be Your Dog?” is determined to help. The sweet kitty can’t live with Arfy and his friend who delivers the mail because she’s allergic to cats, but surely someone wants a many-talented, sweet, playful kitty for their very own?
Cleverly, before we even get to the title page, there’s a little narration by Arfy about how he found his new friend, the kitty. After the title page, as in Arfy’s own book, there are letters he writes to neighbors asking if they want a kitty of their own. Cummings brilliantly combines visuals with plays on words to make each letter that Arfy crafts match the visually revealing prospective home.
For example, the first prospective home is the residence of a music teacher. Even my four-year-old grandson recognized that the house looks like a piano with the treble clef symbol in both front windows. Even the mailbox has a musical motif. The letter introduces Scamper and shares that “He also likes to sing! I know he would make beautiful music with your students.” The response from the music teacher is negative, but also peppered with clever musical play on words — some that only an adult will get. “I was hoping for more harmony in my household. But with Scamper here, I can hardly find a single measure of rest.“
With each house, Scamper gamely delivers Arfy’s letter. But each time there is something that doesn’t work out. Three babies and a cat don’t make for gentle petting, and a cat who plays with mice instead of eating them won’t help a mechanic with a rodent problem. Even the cat-loving neighbor, whose house looks like a cat, seems to appreciate inanimate cats more than the real, moving, sometimes-clumsy ones.
Finally, Scamper sends Arfy a message. He really wants a home where he can do all the things that each house offered. He wants to get cuddled, play, get brushed, sing. And yet again, Cummings’ ending brought this reviewer (and lover of my three black cats) to tears with the all-too-clever, all-too-touching twist at the end.
As Cummings shares on the endpaper at the end of the book, there are many ways to help homeless kittens and puppies (and grown-up dog and cats). Donate to your local rescue. Get to know them and how the money is used. Adopt a pet instead of buying one. At the shelter, meet all the cats and dogs before you pick one to adopt. Some might be shy or scared at the shelter. A dog or cat missing a leg or even an eye will be a fabulous pet with lots of love to share. And don’t overlook the senior pets. They have years to show their gratitude to you for giving them a second chance!
If you don’t have Arfy’s book, buy it along with “I Found a Kitty!” and your classroom or library or bookshelf will be better for it. And your children will love them. Guaranteed.
Please note: This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by the publisher, Random House, for review purposes.
“One Hundred Dogs & Counting” by Cara Sue Achterberg is her book about the second part of the title, “One Woman, Ten Thousand Miles, and a Journey into the Heart of Shelters and Rescues.” In this book that will wring your heart, we learn about her selfless determination to foster, and thus rescue, as many shelter dogs as she can.
Achterberg makes no bones about the work that goes into fostering. She doesn’t play it safe like I do, only fostering adult dogs who will be quickly housebroken and are usually past the chewing and destructive stage. Her description of the work and cleaning involved in caring for litters of puppies has convinced me that adult fosters are definitely the way to go!
But Achterberg doesn’t shirk from hard work and from heartache. When you rescue, you know both. She passionately describes loving the foster dogs and then letting them go to permanent families. She knows that it’s easy to be what’s called a “foster failure” and adopt the foster dog you’ve fallen in love with, but then she wouldn’t be able to take in tens of dogs every year and save them. This one woman has saved over a hundred dogs in a short time by fostering them and then getting them adopted. Then repeat.
But the more dogs she saved, the more she thought about how the problem of unwanted and abandoned dogs doesn’t seem to be getting any better. And so she took trips to rural shelters to see what their problems were and what they thought needed to be done to solve the overpopulation problem which then leads to the problem of too many unwanted dogs. She describes her travels in detail. There are brutal descriptions of horrible shelters where caring people struggle to save as many dogs as they can in spite of almost insurmountable obstacles. There are also shelters where those in charge spend their own money to feed and care for the dogs. It’s a huge spectrum.
This is a book that will make you cry. It’s horribly depressing to realize that so many wonderful dogs and cats (and other animals) are discarded like trash when uncaring, heartless owners decide they don’t want them anymore. But those on animal rescue sites and Facebook pages dedicated to saving animals already know that. We see the despair deep in a senior dog’s eyes when its owner hands over its leash and walks away, away saying, “It’s too old so I don’t want it.” It will also make your heart sing as you recognize that there are many, many dedicated people who work tirelessly to save as many animals as possible.
It’s a book for those who already rescue. In Cara’s story, we recognize our own struggles with the mess, the baby gates, the dogs who have behavior issues. We know about the feeling of loss when the dog leaves – no matter how loving the adoptive home. And we all say to the adopters that if they ever don’t want “our” dog, we will take the dog back.
This is also a book for those who don’t know about rescue. Who might read this and learn how desperately foster homes are needed, and might just decide to try and foster a dog or cat. After reading about the work involved in fostering puppies, I can’t say she’s done a great job promoting that particular job! But also, it’s an important step in educating people on the importance of helping. Reach out to local rescues and see what they need. Usually they are the ones pulling from other public shelters in all areas of the country where dogs and cats are routinely killed for space.
No one wants to kill animals. But when shelters get overwhelmed, unless there are rescues willing to take the animals, there is no where for them to go. And unless there are fosters willing to help house and love the animals, the rescues can’t do it all. There are wonderful projects and things that shelters have done to get the community involved. Because once animal-loving people understand what is happening in their community, they often want to help. And sometimes it’s just as simple as asking for help, asking for dog walkers, building walking paths and inviting the community to come walk — with a shelter dog.
Please, read the book. Get involved. Foster a dog or cat. Or donate to your local rescue. Offer to help transport animals to their final destination. It’s a commitment of a few hours, but with a huge reward. Visit Who Will Let the Dogs Out for more information.
And when you are finished reading the book? Pass it on to someone who might benefit from reading it. Someone else who might help. (Pegasus Books)
A few of this reviewer’s rescues. Two black cats from the streets. One dog rescued from China (I flew her here) and the other from the Redland area of Florida by the Redland Rockpit Quarry Project, a group that feeds the homeless and abandoned dogs in that area each and every day. They do their best to find rescues for the dogs and cats.
Hank Phillippi Ryan is the master of mystery and deception. Her novels are filled with people who are not quite who they appear to be, and “The First to Lie,” as we are warned in the very title, is no different. The story is about a pharmaceutical company that will stoop as low as possible to push their drug that often helps women become pregnant. The problem? One of the side effects is sterility, meaning that women who were promised a baby ended up with a future that meant they would never be able to have a baby of their own.
In “The Night Swim,” Megan Goldin explores the male domination that exists to this day in rural America. Especially the male dominance that white, wealthy men feel endowed with, along with the usual arrogance that comes from those who feel entitled. They feel entitled to special treatment from the authorities, special treatment from shops, special treatment from their friends who may not be as entitled as they are, and special treatment from girls who, in their view, really have no right to say no to their advances.
For those who want their fiction to start with a huge hook — a first sentence that grabs you by the throat and won’t let you go — “Musical Chairs” by Amy Poeppel is not the book for you. Rather, this charming story begins like a lovely overture, with an introduction that gets you used to the rhythm and feeling of the piece, and slowly, you become entranced and rapt in the characters and plot of this beautifully composed novel.
Sometimes a powerful and emotionally rich book like “Brave Like That” by Lindsey Stoddard comes along that I wish everyone would read. A thoughtful book that could change the world – really. And in this book, the lessons Cyrus, the main character, learns are ones that he recognizes could change the world.
“Brave Like That” is a difficult book to review. There’s so much packed into this treasure of a story that it’s difficult to include all the messages and themes. Cyrus is the son of a firefighter, and his Dad was a star football player in their small town. Since he’s been a little kid, everyone thought he’d follow in his dad’s footsteps. Cyrus was adopted by his dad after being left at the fire station when he was an infant. On the night of his eleventh birthday, celebrated at the fire station, a stray dog shows up, and Cyrus is convinced that fate expects him to keep the dog, just as his father kept him. But Cyrus’s father has other ideas.
How far would you go to save the life of your true love? In “How to Save a Life,” co-authors Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke explore this concept in a touching novel that has more than a few “Groundhog Day” movie references. It also has a wonderfully imperfect first person narrator who either lunches or talks to his mother daily, wears his shirts buttoned up one button too many, and looks both ways before crossing the street — always. Dom is just not the adventurous type, and he wonders if that’s what made him fall in love with Mia a decade ago.
“Muzzled” is the twenty-first entry in David Rosenfelt’s “Andy Carpenter Mystery” series, and it seems quite clear that Rosenfelt’s many fans hope it’s the first of at least twenty more. The protagonist in the series, Andy Carpenter, is one of the most charmingly devilish characters in the world of legal mystery novels. And he’s also one of the funniest. Andy might be viewed as the Don Rickles of defense attorneys; he’s a genius of insult humor. But unlike Rickles, Andy’s main target is himself. With his hilarious self-deprecating comments, he willingly exposes himself as a coward, a meanie, and a downright jerk. Yet he’s also a most lovable character. Even as he bravely places himself in dangerous, even life-threatening situations, he admits that he’s scared to death while, for example, shakily clutching a loaded pistol while dealing with a murderous villain, as he does in “Muzzled.”
As usual, the unfolding of the novel’s plot begins with Andy’s big heart and sense of justice forcing him to take on the case of a man wrongly accused of murder. In this case, that man is one Alex Vogel, who has suspiciously escaped unscathed from a boat that has exploded, killing two of his business partners. Their company has been working on the development of a mysterious drug which is soon to be introduced to the world via a stock market IPO. Everybody but Andy believes Vogel, a munitions expert, has blown up the boat with the express intent of murdering his two partners — though nobody knows exactly why this respectable (and dog-loving!) man would commit such a dastardly act. So Andy decides he must defend Alex, thereby getting himself inextricably involved with shady characters, the Russian Mafia, and assorted other villains.
“Muzzled” boasts all the uniquely humorous characters and characteristics of the entire series: the wonderfully wacky and weirdly eccentric members of his investigative team and staff, the frustrated cops, lawyers, and judges who have to cope with Andy’s antics and insults, and villains who are sly, smart, and arrogant but who, in the end, can never quite match the hero’s off-the-wall brilliance.
If you’ve never read one of Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter Mysteries, start with “Muzzled,” and treat yourself to an enjoyable, laugh-inducing — and, by the way, suspenseful — good time. And if you’ve already read earlier entries in the series, rest assured that you’ll find this one every bit as involving, gripping, and entertaining as the first twenty.
This review was first published on Bookreporter.com.
No one writes better YA sci-fi than Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Kaufman wrote the thrilling “The Unearthed” duology with Meagan Spooner and Kristoff wrote the very unique and dystopian “The Lifelike Trilogy.”
They wowed fans with the first book in this trilogy, and in “Aurora Burning,” the sequel to “Aurora Rising,” Kaufman and Kristoff take the story to new heights. They also leave readers on a cliffhanger that’s higher and more deadly than most cliffhanger endings. So if you hate cliffhangers, you might want to wait for the third book to come out and read them one right after another. Although maybe it’s better to be like the characters in this futuristic adventure and jump right in.
What happens when a prospective Olympic gymnast has an injury during the Olympic Trials that ends up destroying her dreams of Olympic glory? In “Head Over Heels,” Hannah Orenstein creates a main character whose whole life had been dedicated to the goal of being an Olympic contender. Avery Abrams had worked for hours after school at the gym and then had been homeschooled so that she could devote even more time to training.
