June 1, 2015
Can a girl, a dog, and a boy overcome the disadvantages of circumstance? When Clair first hears the sad sounds of the dog chained in the yard next door at the Stewarts' house, she doesn't do anything. The neighbors are not friendly ones, and she's afraid of them. But the filth and neglect in that backyard are too much to ignore, so finally she makes friends with the big, wild, lonely dog called Wally. The neighbor's son, Danny, emerges as an accomplice, and the two of them start Wally's training, based on a book by famous dog trainer Father Jasper, becoming friends in the process. But when a tragedy befalls them, Clair questions their whole relationship and Wally's safety. Monninger offers a sweet look at a tough existence. His characters manage to stay true to their hardscrabble roots while inviting readers to join a world in which hope is a rare but welcome thing. Occasionally, the author wields too forceful a hand, especially when it comes to Clair's expression of emotional confusion in the form of physical sickness. In general, however, the characters manage to be realistic yet engaging in the face of turmoil. A sweet story about a lucky dog that reveals itself to be a deeper story about a lucky human. (Fiction. 12-15)
COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
January 1, 2016
Dog Wally's owner has tied him to a post outside in the freezing-cold winter. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Clair sets out to free him and finds an unexpected ally in the dog-owner's seventeen-year-old son, Danny, whose tough exterior hides a sensitive soul and whose abusive father has made his life miserable. In Monninger's affecting but never mawkish story, the characters are fully realized.
(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
November 1, 2015
As in his previous novels, including Baby (rev. 1/08), Hippie Chick (rev. 11/08), and Finding Somewhere (2011), Monninger tells a moving tale of a life-changing relationship between a human and an animal. Here, the animal is a dog, Wally, whose owner has tied him to a post outside in the freezing-cold Vermont winter. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Clair can hardly bear to listen to the lonely dog's pitiful whining and sets out to free himonly to have him drag her on a wild run through the woods. She finds an unexpected ally in the dog-owner's seventeen-year-old son, Danny, whose tough exterior hides a sensitive soul and whose abusive father has made his life miserable. Together the teens train Wally and become a sort-of couple, with Clair not quite sure how she feels about Danny, despite the good times they share working with the dog they both care deeply about. Then Danny is arrested, and Wally's safety is threatened. Clair makes a simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful decision about Wally's future that will have animal lovers in (mostly happy) tears. In Monninger's affecting but never mawkish story, the main characters are fully realized, as is Clair's single dad, a biker whose Harley-loving ways come to the rescue in a scene both comic and tender. jennifer m. brabander
(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
Starred review from June 1, 2015
Gr 7 Up-The effects of a person's actions and inactions are writ large in a small, modern-day New Hampshire town. To 16-year-old Clair's way of thinking, she and the neglected black lab next door, Wally, have a lot in common. Though their circumstances differ physically, each has slipped into individual fogs of resignation. Wally's pitiful state prompts Clair to action. She takes it upon herself to tend and train him. The neighbor's teenage son, Danny, insists on helping. The girl's journey toward confidence, optimism, and empathy matches step for step Wally's journey toward a healthy, happy, well-adjusted pet. Soon, Clair and Danny's relationship hiccups into uncertain romance. The teens are fully realized characters. At first, their paths are in sync as they try to spin color into the grayness of their lives. However, when Danny (rightfully) and Clair (by association) are arrested, tragedy strikes. How Clair chooses to handle this abrupt end to her carefully cultivated happiness is marked by new maturity and wisdom that come packaged, she learns, with benefits of their own. Peopling the corners of the story are robust secondary characters-Clair's loving but unsure dad and Danny's skeevy father. Wally's goofy good nature is unrelenting and utterly endearing. The narrative adeptly portrays longing and belonging, and the heartbreak and hope of not only the human condition, but the canine one as well. VERDICT Monninger revitalizes the boy-and-his-dog trope in this sweet novel.-Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC
Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.