This is a sweet, gentle memoir of a boy and his dog, growing up in 1940s rural Mississippi. Willie's parents get a fox terrier puppy when Willie is nine, and Willie and Skip quickly become best friends. In an earlier time and in a small town where everyone knows everyone, they're free to roam all day during the summer months, with friends and on their own, having adventures and playing pranks that sixty years later, would not be tolerated.

There is no plot here. There isn't supposed to be a plot. Morris simply reminisces about his dog and his friends, in no particular chronological order. They play football (Skip too!), have chinaberry wars, and make silly bets, such as Willie and Skip spending a night in the cemetery. Kids started driving the family car early, and Willie teaches Skip to sit with his paws on the wheel, so that at opportune moments Willie can duck out of sight and make it look like Skip is driving.

They (Willie and Skip) travel on the bus to see Willie's grandparents, attend Boy Scout camp, and do any number of other things you'd be hard pressed to get permission to include your dog in today. It's not really true that the 1940s were a simpler time; there was a world war, and a host of social issues, almost entirely un-noted in this book, that were about to boil to the surface. It was a different time, though, and childhood was in some respects freer and less complicated. Morris does a wonderful job of capturing that feeling of innocence and freedom, and childhood adventures and pranks that were still possible in my own childhood in the fifties and sixties, but are largely gone from childhood now.

The language is rich and beautiful, too, though perhaps a bit challenging for the children likely to be pointed at this book because it's about a child and a dog. This is more intended for those of us who remember our own childhoods, than for those still experiencing theirs.

Recommended.

I borrowed this book from the library. ( )

This book is slow paced but fun. It takes place in Yazoo, Mississipp a small laid back little town. Willie is 9 years old when he gets Skip. It was a little mixed up at times because it seems the author skips around in his adventures rather than moving from age 9 to adult hood. You may stumble over the rich vocabulary but understanding the unfamiliar words is not crucial to understanding and enjoying the story. It starts in the 40's when America is involved in WWII and you get a real insight into what it may have been like to grow up during the war. He plays war games, visits a POW Camp where one of the prisoners pets Skip through the fence. Skip is has an uncanny dislike for the voice of Hitler on the radio. Willie is typical boy who loves sports, the outdoors, the war, etc. It was a time before electronics, even television. They do have a radio where they get the updates about the war. For this reason, Willie has a great imagination and spends his life in the out of doors. ( )

Well, this is about what you'd expect in a memoir about a boy and his dog....lots of grand memories of freedom and summer afternoons, with boyhood highjinks accompanied and enhanced by an unforgettable canine sidekick and extremely accommodating adults. And, of course, the inevitable poignancy of all good things ending. Still, 3 stars is about all I can give it, for I found it very episodic, with no narrative arc whatsoever.
March 2016 ( )

Fun, light read about a boy and his dog - how they grow up together and their many adventures. Poignant and heart-warming. ( )

The people who love this book--and lots and lots do--I'm practically unique in failing to be charmed--call this "sweet" and "charming." It's about a dog, Skip, who Willie Morris got as a gift at nine-years-old in 1943. And more than that, it's about his life growing up with his dog in Mississippi. I guess I kept waiting for a plot to show up. But this isn't To Kill a Mockingbird. Or Sounder. Or anything I could find that resembled a plot. I think this is too... gentle a story for the likes of me. Too anecdotal. With prose called "spare" in the blurbs I found just too simplistic. And for me the book was about as exciting as being taken through someone else's family album. If there was any conflict (which is just about the definition of plot) I surely missed it. At least at 118 pages it was short. ( )