Reviews

What a wonderful somewhat beginner chapter book that is perfect for 3rd -5th graders! Katherine Applegate writes animal fiction for kids like no other and this book is now exception. This is about a dog shelter that houses lost or abandoned dogs, but also robot dogs. Chance doesn't like robot dogs, until he meets Metal Head and with the help of a mouse, the three of them form a friendship and help other dogs and some kids throughout the book. Chance ends up finding his home, and Metal Head realizes he's needed someplace knew. Heart warming and tear jerking, this novel will be loved by kids and adults alike!

jwsg's review

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emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

4.5

fyziksgirl's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Katherine Applegate is one of my favorite children's authors, but this book did not do it for me.

From the description I expected an adventure to find forever families, but really the portion where the characters leave the shelter is very short. Most of the book takes place in the shelter, complete with all the sad things that happen in a shelter, like getting to the top of "the list" and dogs thinking they're going to be put down. It is a very sad, anxiety-inducing book, and it feels like much of the point was to really emphasize to kids how terrible shelters are, which is a hard thing to put on them when kids cannot do much to materially help the situation without significant parent buy-in.

There's also a lot of ableism in this book, and though it's relatively low key, it's there and was hard to read as a disabled family. There's a ton of talk about how no one wants to see a dog with 3 legs and it is depressing to be around them.

This is contradicted at the VERY end,

but 99% of the book it is talked about as a given and an accepted thing everyone knows. They also talk about how no family would want an older dog because they'll have more vet bills. While this is true for dogs and dog adoptions, when you're anthropomorphizing the dogs to make them relatable to humans and like human stand-ins for deeper meaning, it sends a rough message to children (and adults) who need regular doctor visits and medical care and can feel like a burden on their family for it.

There's a nonspeaking autistic boy who visits the shelter and the happy arc of his story is how he begins talking and "entering the world in a way he never has," and while connection is necessary and good for humans, the whole thing has an off, ableist vibe in how it was framed. When he has a meltdown (partially from adults pushing him into it), he is suspended from returning; it is acknowledged it happened because of his disability not a choice but him, but the book treats as a given that it's a reasonable response to punish him for his disability and never acknowledges the responsibility of the adults in the situation. The human characters do care about him, though, the ableism was low-key, it just gave me the ick.

Overall a much sadder book than I was expecting. I thought it would be a hope-filled adventure, but it is mostly a depressing story of being stuck in a hard situation without the main character even looking to improve her life or imagining she could. It was 2 stars most of the way through for me, but at the end it bumped up to 3.5.

Definitely don't read if you've lost a dog recently.

Content Warnings