Dog Days! Books with Canine Stars

 

Enzo is a clever old dog who has learned a lot.  He adores Denny, an aspiring race car driver, and Denny’s daughter, Zoe, who is at the center of a custody battle. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is a heartwarming novel with both tears and joy. 

A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron is the first in a series of dog books. Bailey the dog is searching for his purpose in life. He finds it in caring for his boy, Ethan. When that life comes to an end, Bailey becomes a police dog, but he knows he needs to find his way back to Ethan. This book will both touch and charm dog lovers!

 

One Good Dog by Susan Wilson follows the story of Adam March, who once had it all until one day he lost control.  Sentenced to community service, he ends up with Chance, a pit bull mix who has issues of his own.  Wilson has several warm and affectionate fiction books that revolve around the human-dog connection.

 

When widower Sam moves with his son to Christmas Street, Jack the dog welcomes them to their new home.  Jack was left behind when his owners moved, but this neighborhood stray has the knack of building connections between people. A Dog Called Jack by Ivy Pembroke is a wonderful feel-good story about community and the love of a dog.

 

Jet pilot Brady Cole is really attracted to his next-door neighbor, Lily, but he’s not much of a dog person.  The trouble is, to get to Lily he’s going to have to get through her opinionated, temperamental, destructive doggy companion, Doug.  And Doug does NOT like Brady.  Beware of Doug by Elaine Fox is a delightful rom-com with a canine twist!

 

When Dawn’s boyfriend dumps her, she turns to the one being she can count on for comfort:  her rescue dog, Chuck. Chuck has some thoughts on the matter, which much to Dawn’s surprise, she can hear. In fact, she can hear all dogs now and they are just full of advice. Merrill Markoe’s Walking in Circles Before Lying Down is about the search for love, the etiquette of peeing, and the joy of playing fetch.

 

 Dancing Dogs is a collection of sixteen stories by Jon Katz featuring a variety of dogs, from purebreds to mutts.  Katz is a noted dog lover who titled his memoir A Dog Year.  The tales run the gamut of emotions, but all are endearing.

Shady Hollow by Juneau Black

Reviewed by Jeanne

Vera Vixen is the star reporter for the Shady Hollow Herald because this quick red fox has quite the nose for news.  Most of the time she covers events of local interest such as the spelling bee, but this time something almost unheard of has happened:  one of the citizens of the Hollow is dead and it looks like murder.  The deceased, Otto Sumpf, was the town curmudgeon with a sharp tongue but would that have been a reason for murder?  With police chief Theodore Meade too busy fishing (and avoiding unpleasantness) to take an active part in the investigation, Deputy Orville Braun dusts off The Big Book of Policing to solve the case.

Enjoyment of this book is highly dependent on your tolerance for whimsy.  The characters are all animals, from Lenore the raven who runs Nevermore Books to Reginald von Beaverpelt, leading citizen and sawmill owner.  The pace is leisurely but I liked the resolution.

I have to say I enjoyed it, but then I like movies like Zootopia or Fantastic Mr. Fox.  I’m not going to spend a lot of time wondering how a moose serves coffee or a snake does a medical examination.  I’m going to go with the flow.  I thought the idea was cute and I enjoyed the characters, enough so that I will be reading the rest of the series. 

Books in the series are:

Shady Hollow

Cold Clay

Mirror Lake

Twilight Falls

Summers End  (2024)

The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith

 

Reviewed by Ambrea

Fox found an unlikely friend in Star, who used his light to guide Fox through the frightening forest.  Content with his life with Star, Fox forages for food and spends his days—and nights—prowling the underbrush.  But when Star suddenly disappears, Fox is left alone in the cold and dark.  To find Star, Fox embarks on a journey beyond the forest he knows to find his beloved friend.

I don’t usually read children’s book, but I found myself instantly intrigued by the cover of The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith.  I stumbled across it purely by accident, spying the cover on a recommendation list or, maybe, one of the many bookish websites I inhabit.  Anyway, I read it simply because I fell in love with the cover.  I mean, I loved the deep blue background highlight by twisting, spiraling vines and the aforementioned fox.  Something about the artistry intrigued and enchanted me—and, besides which, I simply couldn’t pass up a book about a fox.

Admittedly, I thought it might be a young readers novel—like something in the realm of Louis Sachar, or Cressida Cowell—but I discovered it’s actually a children’s book, a carefully illustrated story that lasts, at most, 30 pages.  However, I must say I was pleased with The Fox and the Star.  It’s a wonderful little story that’s I’m sure will appeal to young readers and, possibly, their parents.

I loved the illustrations.  I loved Fox and his bright orange fur; I loved the dark, quiet forest with its vines and its rabbit dens; I loved the sky of stars.  And I absolutely loved the phrase, “Look up beyond your ears.”  It had a quality to it, a strangely scintillating illustration that appealed to me more than I expected.

It’s not a very complex book, but, as I pointed out, The Fox and the Star is a children’s book.  Altogether, The Fox and the Star is wonderfully drawn fable that feels different from the usual ones I’ve stumbled across in children’s literature.  More importantly, it combines a creative story with fantastic illustrations to create a magical book.