August 26, 2025 by Starscape
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Stella is a corgi who is born at a facility run by Danitta, Erra, and Memphis where larger Livestock Guardian Dogs are also being bred. She's somewhat interested in what the bigger dogs do, but ends up being adopted by Mateo. His family owns a sheep ranch that is struggling, run by his much older brothers Bart and Finn. Mateo's mother passed away when he was young, and he is being homeschooled, although no one seems to check on his progress. The father, Werner, is against having a frivolous small dog who won't be of any "use" on the ranch, but is too distracted by the poor state of the business to put up much of an objection. Times are tough financially, and the father wants to sell the ranch and maybe move to Texas to live with his sister. When she is killed in a car crash, her son comes to live with Mateo's family. Julian goes right to work on the ranch, coming up with great ideas like having some of the animals graze on a neighbor's troublesome knapweed in exchange for money. When it comes to light that Mateo is failing all of his courses, Julian comes to his aid. He not only offers to tutor Mateo, but points out that no one is paying attention to his cousin or listening to his opinions at all. Stella learns to herd, and enjoys it; she's also a bit alarmed that her littermates have gotten to be soft and overweight. When bad weather and wolves conspire to make conditions difficult, will Stella be able to prove her worth and save the day?
Strengths: I'm definitely a dog person, and love to see stories of working canines, even though my Shih Tzu, Leo, spends his days just keeping members of my household safe from squirrels and providing emotional support by way of demanding belly rubs! It was fun to see Corgi representation, especially since they are a herding breed, even though they are smaller than Great Pyranees and often serve as lap dogs. Life can't be easy on a sheep ranch, and the challenges that Mateo's family faces to keep their operation running are very realistic. My favorite part of this was Mateo's homeschooling... or lack thereof. I've seen many students who come back to public school after being left on their own to work through computerized courses, so even though it seems somewhat unlikely that no one was supervising Mateo's school work, it actually is something that happens! This will circulate well on the basis of the cover alone, and there are many readers at my school who have worked through all of Cameron's titles.
Weaknesses: This was a bit sadder than the other two books about service dogs, Zeus and Ripley. My readers who like dog books want more action and adventure and fewer problems. While this is written from Stella's perspective, it felt like the story often veered away from things she would have really known or understood.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like Cameron's work or are captivate by the relationship between tweens and their dogs in books like Hautman's Answers to Dog or Hoyle's Just Gus.
No comments:
Post a Comment