Patricia MacLachlan (1938–2022)

A mother, father, son and daughter are stuck in the snow in the woods in their car. Eventually, the parents decide to leave to look for help, telling the children to stay put. But kids are kids and when a large friendly dog approaches the car, they leave a note for their parents (so they won't worry!) and decide to follow him.

It turns out the dog’s master, a poet living in the woods, had recently passed away. The dog is being cared for by the master’s friends, but they are unable to reach him due to the storm.

The dog takes the kids to his master's cabin where the kids and the dog do well. The kids are delighted to find they can understand the dog’s thoughts because kids and poets are the only ones in the world who can hear dogs speak.

It’s a really charming book and I loved the premise about poets, children and dogs.

However, part of me kept screaming inside “No, No don’t do it!” Whyever would both parents leave the children alone? And those who leave the safety of their car are much more likely to perish. I sincerely hope that no child who reads and loves this book makes the choices these kids did.

One time when my kids were little we had been sledding on a remote road. At the end of the day as we were driving home, the car suddenly died and would not restart. My husband decided to walk to look for help. The kids and I stayed in the car, and even though we were dressed for winter activity, since the car wouldn’t start we had no heat, it was becoming dark quickly and temperatures were dropping. I, who have lived all my life in the snow and mountains was a bit scared, although I had complete confidence in my husband who had been a wilderness ranger. It was about ten miles to town. After a couple hours of singing and story telling and cuddling, Bill returned with some kind strangers in a truck. They were able to jump our car battery and then followed us back to town to make sure the car didn’t stall again. No doubt my memory of this incident colored how I felt about the book.

Charming story. Bad advice.… (plus d'informations)

{My Thoughts} – This a a neat little poetry like book about dogs. The short little poems describe each of the dogs. It is amazing how different each dog can be in terms of the things they like, their background, their job, their personality and more. This book helps children to know that each dog is different but they are each special in their own ways.

The words within the book go hand and hand with the illustrations. The illustrations help to bring the words on the pages into a more believable perspective. I really enjoyed it because I like animals and I like poetry. I can’t wait until I let my children read it, because I am certain they will enjoy it also.… (plus d'informations)

{My Thoughts} – Jacob is the father to Anna and Caleb. They have been doing their best to make ends meet around their property without the help of a woman. But Jacob has decided that he is lonely and he does want the help of a woman so he puts an add in the paper asking for a wife. It doesn’t take long for him to get a reply from a lady named Sarah. Sarah is not your typical woman though. She likes to do things for herself and she has lots of beliefs in independence. So once she gets her bearings she asks Jacob to teach her how to plow the fields, how to drive the wagon and how to ride a horse. She picks it all up very quickly.

All of Sarah’s independence starts to worry Anna and Caleb though. They think she wants to learn all this stuff so that she can leave them and not come back. They think that she misses her home in Maine and isn’t interested in being their dad’s new wife and their new mother. Does Sarah want to go back home? Does she want to be married? Does she want to be stuck in a land far from everything she’s familiar with? Does she want to become a mother to two children that are quickly growing up? I suppose you will need to read the book to find out.

My daughter had brought this book home, because she needed to read it for her AR program at school. I decided to read it with her, and I must say it is a nice little story. I may need to track down the other four books to this series sometime in the future.

If you like books similar to that of the Little House on the Prairie I am quite certain you will enjoy this book as well.… (plus d'informations)