Fenway's first-doggie perspective is not as complex as McKinley's in Avi's The Good Dog (Atheneum, 2001) or Squirrel's in Ann M. Teachers and adults will appreciate generous sprinklings of rich vocabulary. Readers will relate to Fenway's impulsivity and delight in descriptions from his dog's-eye view. Eventually, his people take him to a place where he learns to stay, lie down, and leave a toy. Fenway is sad when Hattie abandons him to play with her new neighbor and when he's put in a room behind a Gate after he breaks his leash to protect Hattie from the Truck Man with ice cream. The hard, glistening floor in the Eating Place "terrorizes" him, and he whines with a "pathetic face" until Hattie brings him food to the carpeted hallway. Fenway is a Jack Russell terrier who is so fiercely protective of his girl, Hattie, that he jumps, lunges, and barks furiously and incessantly in the presence of delivery men, squirrels, and even the muffins the new neighbor brings over. Gr 4–6-Fenway narrates the story of his move with Hattie, Food Lady, and Fetch Man from an apartment near a community dog park to a house with its own dog park.
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