From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-Grieving over the recent loss of his beloved dog, 14-year-old Chad Holloway feels hurt and isolated from his family, especially from his grandfather, who ended Shep's life with a mercy bullet after the animal was hit by a car. The teen meets his unconventional new neighbor, David Burton, who enlists his aid to move a refrigerator and, later on, offers him a summer job as a research assistant. The man is a "shaper" who uses sounds from a clicker to train animals to exhibit desired behaviors. He wants to demonstrate the process with Queenie, the seemingly witless dog that Chad's family bought to replace Shep. Chad is not as intrigued by the work as he is by Burton's 15-year-old daughter, who seems oblivious to his crush on her. Yet through her, Chad begins to find his way back to his family and himself. The novel flounders almost from the start because Haas makes only marginal references to the circumstances of the dog's death and Chad's anguish over it, giving little credibility to the protagonist. Hollow characters, hackneyed dialogue, and a rambling plot further weaken the story, despite several engaging scenes that detail the shaping process with horses, dogs, and cats. The characters deliver awkward homilies on the underlying theme-that people can shape one another as well as their animals. Even die-hard animal lovers will find little to hold their interest.
William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 5-7. Fourteen-year-old Chad Holloway has sealed himself off from his friends and family following the death of his beloved dog, Shep. Then he meets David Burton, an animal trainer and author, who offers Chad a job and offers to help him with his annoying new dog, Queenie. David's training techniques are amazingly successful-- Queenie soon becomes a trusted companion and valued family member--but Chad worries that his own behaviors are being manipulated as well. Haas' latest novel is a thoughtful piece featuring quirky characters with believable problems. Chad, his older sister, Julia (who is failing miserably at training her horse for a competition), and his grandfather, Jeep (who shot Shep to put him out of his misery following a serious accident), are particularly well drawn. Although Chad's extended family is close, the members lack some basic communication skills and seem to know very little about what motivates them. Ironically, it is David's behavioral techniques that give Chad a better understanding of his family and himself. This should be popular with preteens, especially those who feel isolated from their own families. Kay Weisman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“[Haas] draws a convincing portrait of Chad, a nice kid whose adolescent self-absorption, compounded by his personal loss, temporarily makes him intolerable.” —Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Jessie Haas is the author of numerous acclaimed books for young people, including Unbroken, which was a Publishers Weekly Best Book. She lives in Westminster, Vermont, with her husband, Michael J. Daley, a children’s author. Haas began writing about horses from a young age and wrote a story during her junior year of college that became her first novel, Keeping Barney.
