Wolfer, Dianne. Scout and the Rescue DogsJune 3, 2025 by Walker Books Australia
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Scout attends the Arcadia Boarding School for Young Ladies in Australia since her mother has passed away from cancer and her father is a long distance trucker. She's excited to be on a break from school, since she hasn't made many friends. She and her father will be traveling around, delivering dog food to rescue shelters across the country, and she has a plan to convince her father to let her stay at home, and maybe even adopt a dog. She does have a school Friendship Project to work on that her teacher, Ms. Lawson, has assigned. This includes e mailing several classmates, including the popular Ava and Sienna, but also Anika. Many of the shelters need help, so Scout works on a website for one, and helps a woman at another rehome most of the ten dogs in her care before she has hip replacement surgery. Scout has a talent for matchmaking dogs with potential owners, and uses her father's CB Radio to connect with many of the other long distance truckers, many of whom are glad to have dogs as travel companions. There is a Christmas get together planned with her Aunt Sal, but afterwards extensive bushfires are causing all kinds of problems. Scout does meet one dog, Molly, whom she wants to adopt for several reasons. The dog shares her late mother's name, and is a former puppy mill dog who can't walk. She raises money to help with costs, and her father lets her adopt that dog. Her e mails with Anika have been fun, and she feels a little better about going back to school. Her Aunt Sal helps out with fighting the bush fire and is injured, and shelters and truckers across the country are in danger. Once Scout and her father get home, they are in danger, but the wind shifts and their house is spared. This is an interesting fictional coverage of the real life 2019-2020 Australian bush fires.
I can't say that I have ever read anything about wildfires in Australia, although there have been plenty of middle grade novels covering such events in the US, like Davis' Partly Cloudy, Henry's Playing with Fire, Philbrick's Wildfire, Rhodes' Paradise on Fire, and Garretson's Wildfire Run. I do wish there had been a map, since I am not terribly familiar with the Australian landscape, and get the feeling that this took place over a MUCH larger territory than any book in the US would!
Ms. Lawson's Friendship Project is successful, and this small element of friend drama will draw additional readers to this title. One notable feature of this book was the tremendous quality of the paper! I haven't seen many Australian titles, but the paper in this book was very heavy and smooth. I found myself stroking the pages more than I probably should have.
Scout is a delightful character who wants to do so much good, but struggles with her own personal life. She is given a lot more leeway to work on websites and talk to people about adopting dogs than most children would have, but she manages to find owners for so many dogs. I enjoyed Flowers' illustrations of the dogs as well. I can see why this was an award winning title in Australia, and am glad to see it travel to the US.
Fetch! (Barker's Doghouse #1)
June 24, 2025 by Pixel+Ink
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Gio Barker isn't happy that his mother moved him to Milton to live in his deceased grandfather's house, especially since he left his good friends Charlotte and Marco behind. He still connects with them on an online gaming site, but is having trouble making friends in fifth grade. His house is overrun with dogs during the day, and his mother Julie and her assistant Janice often ask him to help. When he eats a peanut butter cookie his mother has baked, he realizes that he can hear what the dogs are thinking! He can't believe it, but Millie, a schnoodle, has a LOT to say, as do Houdini, Gary, Felix, and the other dogs. Foremost in their mind is the need to get outside, smell things, and have adventures, so Gio takes a group to the park. When Millie chases a squirrel and runs off, Julie accuses him of trying to sabotage her business and threatens to go to his school to meet with his teachers about his inability to make friends. Turning to the counsel of the dogs, he decides to join the soccer team, even though he doesn't know how to play. Mason is nice, but Gabe is mean and gives Gio a hard time. Gio finally connects with Isa and Evie at school when they invite him to have lunch with them, and it turns out that Isa is Millie's owner! Will Gio get better at soccer so he can feel more like part of the team, and will he need to keep eating dog biscuits to retain his zoolinguism? Book two, Leave It, comes out November 11, 2025.
This is a great combination of soccer and dogs. Who wouldn't want to be able to understand what their pooch is saying, and to have a group of canines help improve their soccer skills? Gio's resistance to moving and dealing with his mother's business are both understandable, and his struggles to make friends are real. This is a fast paced story that will be great for elementary readers who like magical realism as well as older readers who want a book that isn't too long.
Catalan's occasional black and white illustrations are just right, and I loved the soccer ball bouncing along the bottom of the pages.
Leave It! (Barker's Doghouse #2)
November 11, 2025 by Pixel+Ink
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
After his adventures in Barker's Doghouse, Gio is still struggling with living seven hours away from his best friends, Charlotte, Jonah, and Marcus, whom he has known his whole life. With the school year ending and his birthday approaching, he hopes that he will be able to go back "home home" to visit, and preserve all of his birthday traditions. He is somewhat disappointed when his mother brings home a black Labrador puppy, Bean, but it's not as a present for him. They are fostering the puppy and training him, in the hopes that the community will see that Barker's Doghouse is more than just a doggy day care. Gio, who can talk to the dogs after having eaten a lamb lung treat, doesn't really need more dogs in his life, but he does enjoy having Bean snuggle with him in bed, even if it is against the rules. He runs into trouble when Millie, his friend Isa's dog, is not a fan of Bean. Millie warns Gio that Bean will destroy her banana squeaky toy if he gets it, and that he will be very sneaky in his attempts. She is, of course, right. When Gio's mother plans an open house for the day care on his birthday, he is devastated. Money is tight, and she can't afford to send him to visit his friends. The dogs band together to prepare for the open house so that the facility is shown in its best light, and they even reconcile with the rambunctious puppy causing so many problems. Gio is afraid that the school bully, Gabe, might be adopting Bean, but a surprise arrival saves the day. Millie is once again Gio's best friend, and we can look forward to another adventure.
Bean's puppy energy is perfectly captured, from the chewing on everything in sight to impulsively jumping on a kitchen table with an eye to eating a chocolate cake! Gio does a good job socializing and training him to "leave it"; there's always a better treat in store if Bean complies. Millie's reluctance to accept this usurper is also realistic, and her fighting with Gio because she is angry is only possible because of his magical ability to understand what dogs are saying.
Usually, in dog books, the dogs might talk to each other, but they rarely talk to people. Gio's ability to understand the dogs leads to a lot of interesting problems hiding this skill from his mother and best friend Isa. Millie is a big proponent of sharing more biscuits with Isa so she can also talk, but that has yet to happen. Readers who liked the look into a dog's psyche in Bank's Boy's Best Friend or who enjoyed the doggy day care settings in Sidorov, Wenitsky, and Freeman's Good Dogs on a Bad Day or Crimi's Secondhand Dogs will cheer on Gio as he negotiates with his furry friends.
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