Secondhand Dogs by Carolyn Crimi. 2021. [July] 256 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: Gus lifted his head and sniffed the chilly November air. The smell of dead leaves wafted through the windows and into the cramped kitchen. Someone a few houses down had a fire burning in their fireplace and that smell, too, curled its way inside.
Premise/plot: Miss Lottie rescues dog. Gus, one of our main narrators, was her first rescue and is the leader of the pack. Through the years, the pack has expanded. Miss Lottie has a LOT of love in her heart. When the novel opens, the pack includes: Gus, Tank, Roo, and Moon Pie. But a new member has come into the house--for better and worse--and not every one in the pack thinks it's a good fit or match. Decker, well, Decker doesn't much appreciate any of the dogs--he wants to be the one and only dog--and he doesn't much appreciate Miss Lottie either--not for who she is and what she does.
The book chronicles their adventures and misadventures as they adjust to Decker's arrival...
My thoughts: Secondhand Dogs reminds me of some of Patricia MacLachlan's animal stories...and then, of course, there's Kate DiCamillo. I really loved everything about this book. The writing. The characters. The alternating characters. The story. The premise--the idea of each dog being born with a special, unique gift. The emotional depth of both the animal and human characters. The ending. This one was just a treat of a book. I highly recommend.
Would I have read this book as a child? That's a good question--though not particularly relevant, perhaps. But I bring it up because as a kid I was a super-super sensitive reader. I was hesitant/reluctant to read ANY book with a dog on the cover. Would the dog make it through the book? Would the dog die? Would it get run over? Would it get sick or be poisoned? Was it an older dog who might die naturally? I just didn't have any trust in authors who books with dogs on the cover. NO DOGS die in Secondhand Dogs. So you can breathe easy there. But it is an emotional book with a few intense scenes. Quinn, a human boy, works for Miss Lottie, and his home situation is ROUGH. (He's being BULLIED). This might be a trigger for some. But no dogs die during the book. (I believe there is brief mention of a former dog who had died long, long, long before this novel starts.)
© 2021 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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