11 March 2011 A DOG'S WAY HOME by Bobbie Pyron, Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, March 2011, 336p., ISBN: 978-0-06-198674-1

"And every stranger's face I see

Reminds me that I long to be

Homeward bound."

-- Paul Simon

"Mama slipped an arm around me and pulled me to her.  'I'm sorry, Abby.  I know how much you loved him.

'"I twisted away from her.  'He might still be alive.

'"A look passed between Mama and Daddy.

"'He could have gotten out of the crate,' I said.  'Just because you didn't find him, that doesn't mean--'

"'Now, Abby,' Daddy said, 'I think it's best if you face the fact that Tam's gone.  He's not coming back.'

"'No!' I said.  I glared at both of them standing there, tears wet on their faces.  I gritted my teeth.  I would not cry.

"'You can give up on him,' I hollered.  'But I won't.'"

Eleven year-old Abby Whistler and her three year-old Shetland sheepdog, Tam, are a thing of beauty to watch as they compete in agility trials.  In the bedroom where Abby and Tam have always shared a bed, there are blue ribbons galore.  But the pair are in the hills of southeast Virginia, hundreds of miles away from their home back in Harmony Gap, North Carolina when, fresh from another triumph, Mama tries to avoid a deer on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the truck crashes through a guardrail.  In the accident that lands Abby and her mother in the hospital, Tam, who was sleeping in his crate in the back of the pickup truck, goes flying in his crate into the woods.  In the first of a hundred close brushes with death, Tam narrowly escapes drowning when the dog crate falls off a ledge into the river.

Day after day, Abby refuses to give up hope that Tam is somehow alive.  Night after night she dreams of her beloved dog facing terrible dangers.  And all the while, Tam has his bearings set on south as he determinedly seeks to find his way back to his girl.

In alternating chapters over the course of three seasons, we follow Abby, a maker of maps and Tam, who has one fixed in his heart, as their love for one another keep each moving one foot in front of the other, no matter how difficult that becomes.  Both face new challenges every day. 

"The coyote woke.  She rose and stretched elaborately, first one black leg and then the other.  As six months, she was all long, gangly legs and comically huge ears.  She shook the night's sleep from her tan and white coat and looked around the forest.  Her yellow eyes fell on Tam.  The coyote stood stock-still, ears cocked forward, nose working the air.

"To Tam, she looked almost like other dogs he'd met.  But not quite.  She had a doggish smell, except wilder.  She smelled of sun and grass, blood and bones.  Tam whined uncertainly and raised his tail.

"The coyote did what every canine from wolf to poodle does as a sign of friendship.  She wagged her tail.  Her ears relaxed and she stretched her mouth in a wide coyote grin.

"Fear and uncertainty of yet another wild creature Tam did not understand filled him.  What was this dog that was not a dog?  He raised his tail higher.  A low, low growl rumbled from his chest.

"The little coyote pinned her ears flat against her skull and wagged the tip of her tail in her bid for friendship.  

"Tam growled louder, his eyes hardening.

"Then a breeze from the south whispered through the tall pines.  It made its way to Tam's nose, to his ears, Home, home. 

"Tam wheeled and set out on his course, straight and true.  He crossed meadows and followed faint deer paths.  The miles passed beneath his feet.

"And always, always, just out of sight, followed the coyote." 

"We've got time to think of the ones we love

As the miles roll away"

-- Jackson Browne, "The Load-Out"

A DOG'S WAY HOME is a first-rate adventure story and a triumphant story of believing in those whom you love.  I am sure that my experience of staying up late into the night to read just one more Tam chapter...and then just one more Abby chapter...and then just one more Tam chapter will be repeated in homes of countless young animal lovers.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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