I need a dog book for an 8th grade reluctant reader

[hedgehog]

He's done Shane, Lassie come home, Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows. Any ideas? All I can think of is Call of the Wild.



(Shane? there's a dog in Shane? I think his mother mentioned that book)

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Call of the Wild is an EXCELLENT choice....

[Nostradammit]

6. +1 on that.

[rwheeler31]

2. Balto

[Nostradammit]

3. Where the Red Fern Grows, of course.

No More Dead Dogs is another one, which I haven't read, but my wife was reading it with her kid at the volunteer mentor program.

Hope that helps.

[pnwmom]

4. Marley and Me, the recent bestseller.

Very funny biography of an irresistible and uncontrollable Labrador Retriever.

http://www.marleyandme.com/

My eighth grade son loved it, and so did my husband and I.

(He won't need the adapted version for younger kids; the best-selling version is fine.)

[hedgehog]

15. Sounds good! Thanks!

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. The stories by James Herriot are wonderful. n/t

[asjr]

18. I wish PBS would rerun

the television series based on Herriot's books. I love them and would love for my granddaughters to see it. Thank you for mentioning Herriot. I will get them the books for Christmas.

[applegrove]

7. How bout Call of the Wild or Never Cry Wolf, the Dog Who Wouldn't Be

or Travels with Charlie.

[hedgehog]

9. Wow! Thanks Guys!

[China_cat]

8. A Dog of Flanders

Are you sure you aren't meaning 'Shiloh' instead of 'Shane'?

Gray Dawn; My Dog Skip; Kazan; Baree: The Story of a Wolf-Dog; The Way of a Dog: Being the Further Adventures of Gray Dawn and Some Others; Big Red; Stormy. That ought to give you a few to start.

If he's reluctant but likes outre themes...A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison. Not a book but a great story. Found in either "Dangerous Visions" or "Again, Dangerous Visions".

[hedgehog]

10. I think you're right. She probably said Shiloh and i heard Shane!

[lligrd]

11. Cujo, How Could An 8th Grade Boy Not Like It? nt

[Dora]

12. Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech

http://www.amazon.com/Love-That-Dog-Sharon-Creech/dp/0060292873

From Publishers Weekly

In last year's Fishing in the Air, Creech took a spare, metaphorical approach to a father-son relationship. Here she examines the bond between a boy and his dog to create an ideal homage to the power of poetry and those who write it. The volume itself builds like a poem. Told exclusively through Jack's dated entries in a school journal, the book opens with his resistance to writing verse: "September 13/ I don't want to/ because boys/ don't write poetry./ Girls do." Readers sense the gentle persistence of Jack's teacher, Miss Stretchberry, behind the scenes, from the poems she reads in class and from her coaxing, to which the boy alludes, until he begins to write some poems of his own. One by William Carlos Williams, for instance, inspires Jack's words: "So much depends/ upon/ a blue car/ splattered with mud/ speeding down the road." A Robert Frost poem sends Jack into a tale (in verse) of how he found his dog, Sky. At first, his poems appear to be discrete works. But when a poem by Walter Dean Myers ("Love That Boy" from Brown Angels) unleashes the joy Jack felt with his pet, he becomes even more honest in his poetry. Jack's next work is cathartic: all of his previous verses seemed to be leading up to this pi ce de r sistance, an admission of his profound grief over Sky's death. He then can move on from his grief to write a poem ("inspired by Walter Dean Myers") about his joy at having known and loved his dog. As in any great poem, the real story surfaces between the lines. From Jack's entries, readers learn how unobtrusively his teacher guides him to poems he can collect and emulate, and how patiently she convinces him to share his own work. By exposing Jack and readers to the range of poems that moves Jack (they appear at the back of the book), Creech conveys a life truth: pain and joy exist side by side. For Jack and for readers, the memory of that dog lives on in his poetry. Readers will love that dog, and this book. Ages 8-12. (Aug.)

[Thirtieschild]

13. Try Albert Payson Terhune - wrote about collies

[MuseRider]

20. As a child I could not get enough

of Albert Payson Terhune.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. White Fang.

Also by London.

There's another book I read as a kid (many, many years ago) about a bull terrier (today known a pit bull) lost in the wilderness, adopted by a pack of wolves, which grew up to lead the pack. Don't recall the name of it. I read it at about 10 or 11, about the same time I read Call of the Wild and White Fang.

[sandnsea]

16. White Fang

Sounder, Savage Sam.

Although I agree with the Cujo choice, and would add Pet Semetary. Every book doesn't have to be inspirational.

[GliderGuider]

17. Beautiful Joe

about the story, in the dog's point of view

a link to its Amazon page

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. Beautiful Joe was one of my favorites as a kid

It's a late nineteenth century book about an abused dog who is taken in by a family of animal lovers, and the dog is the narrator.

[hedgehog]

19. There aren't any dogs in any of Carl Hiassen's books, are there?

Does anyone remember which one of Christopher Moore's books features the inner dialog of the dog belonging to one of the characters?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

21. Plague Dogs nt

[hedgehog]

22. That's a wonderful book, but I think a little too much for this kid.

[LWolf]

23. Dog books:

Gary Paulsen's "Dog Song," "Winterdance," "My Life in Dog Years," and "Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers."

"A Dog's Life: Autobiography of a Stray" by Ann Martin.

"The Good Dog" by Avi

And, of course, for ALL ages: any "Hank the Cowdog."

[Vanje]

24. Nop's Trials by Donald McCaig

[S_B_Jackson]

25. Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard as well as it's sequels

Irish Red & Outlaw Red.

Also Savage Sam by Fred Gipson (sequel to Ol' Yeller)

[RebelOne]

26. Marley and Me. It's about the worst dog in the world.

A great read. It's been on the Times Best Seller list for a long time.

[mzteris]

28. Big Red and Irish Red

were two I loved as a kid.

They were by Jim Kjelgaard. He had some others, too.