This wonderful story for young children puts their “I wonder” inquisitiveness into high drive. A young narrator wonders what life was like for a dog recently adopted into his loving home. He asks all the questions we wonder about our rescued pets, such as, “did you have another name — like Gus, or Sam, or Teddy, or Howie, or maybe Miles — before you were mine? / Was your boy proud when you learned a trick?”

The illustrations are soft, colorful, and appealing to children, showing the dog doing typical dog antics. The illustrator, David Walker, keeps the illustrations cheerful, including those taking place in the shelter. Only a couple of illustrations are sad, when the dog wanders “alone and scared, like a dog shouldn’t be,” and the boy’s memory of his last moments with his old dog. The author and illustrator quickly turn around the unhappy pages with positive words and pictures of the new dog being cared for and loved.

Children who have recently adopted a dog will enjoy sharing the wonderings introduced in this story. However, be prepared to be moved to tears when you read it since you understand the larger picture of homeless pets behind this story. Not to worry for your young children though — the book is celebratory rather than preachy about the benefits of adopting an older dog into your home.

“A heartwarming story about how adopting an animal can bring happiness and comfort to a pet as well as the new owner.” — Front flap

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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a mystery and coming-of-age story about a boy who develops a strong connection with the fictional line of dogs his father and grandfather bred and raised on their farmland kennel. Born mute, his communication is limited to his mother, father, and the dogs that understand his sign language, and this sparks a turning point in Edgar’s life when his father dies and his uncle returns to the farm. In an Amazon essay, the author, David Wroblewski, explains why he wrote this novel. “I wished I could read a novel about a boy and his dog, one that integrated our contemporary knowledge of canine behavior, cognition, and origins with my experience of living with dogs….I’d recently come to know a good dog, maybe the best dog I’d ever met, and the subject of people and dogs and ethics and character suddenly seemed urgent.”

The story is compelling, moving, and written so beautifully, I reread passages just so I could enjoy them again. “Essay (one of Edgar’s dogs) circled and circled, solving again the everlasting riddle of lying down to sleep. She came to rest with her back to him, muzzle fitted high on her foreleg. Overhead the aurora flew, sheets of wild neon.” Wroblewski captures images such as this with amazing descriptive language.

It is of special interest to people who train dogs, since the Sawtelle dogs’ intelligence and training contribute to the plot twists and turns. Wroblewski eloquently explores the meaning of training in a passage where Edgar’s mother reflects on her dog training, “That was what people didn’t understand. Unless they had worked long and hard at it, most people thought training meant forcing their will on a dog. Or that training required some magical gift. Both ideas were wrong. Real training meant watching, listening, diverting a dog’s exuberance, not suppressing it. You couldn’t change a river into a sea, but you could trace a new channel for it to follow.”

This novel is one of the best I’ve ever read. Perhaps it’s my love for the way the language formed images in my mind. Perhaps it’s the plot surprises thrown out when I least expected it. Perhaps it’s my love for dogs.

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Merle’s Door is a great book for any dog lover. It is the touching story of Ted Kerasote’s relationship with a lab mix named Merle. Ted meets Merle as a young pup in the wilderness of Utah. After a few days of bonding, Merle decides to tag along with Ted to his home town of Kelly Wyoming near the Grand Teton National Park. Once home, Ted observes Merle’s reactions to hunting, skiing, human civilization, and domestication.

Ted interprets Merle’s behaviors using the theories and experience of a wide variety (and sometimes conflicting theories) of researchers including Charles Darwin, Juliet Clutton-Block (Origins of the Domestic Dog), and Oskar Pfungst (Clever Hans). As you read this book, you will find yourself reflecting on what your dog is actually trying to communicate, and you might even find yourself questioning a training technique or two. At a minimum, you’ll find this to be an extremely heartfelt story of a man and his dog.

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