A Home for Goddesses and Dogs
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
A unique masterpiece about loss, love, and the world’s best bad dog, from award winner Leslie Connor, author of the National Book Award finalist The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle.
This novel sings about loss and love and finding joy in new friendships and a loving family, along with the world’s best bad dog. An uplifting middle grade novel about recovery featuring strong female characters, an adorable dog, and the girl who comes to love him.
It’s a life-altering New Year for thirteen-year-old Lydia when she uproots to a Connecticut farm to live with her aunt following her mother’s death.
Aunt Brat and her jovial wife, Eileen, and their ancient live-in landlord, Elloroy, are welcoming—and a little quirky. Lydia’s struggle for a sense of belonging in her new family is highlighted when the women adopt a big yellow dog just days after the girl’s arrival.
Wasn’t one rescue enough?
Lydia is not a dog person—and this one is trouble! He is mistrustful and slinky. He pees in the house, escapes into the woods, and barks at things unseen. His new owners begin to guess about his unknown past.
Meanwhile, Lydia doesn’t want to be difficult—and she does not mean to keep secrets—but there are things she’s not telling...
Like why the box of “paper stuff” she keeps under her bed is so important...
And why that hole in the wall behind a poster in her room is getting bigger...
And why something she took from the big yellow dog just might be the key to unraveling his mysterious past—but at what cost?
* Junior Library Guild Selection *
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After her single mother's protracted illness and death, 13-year-old narrator Lydia moves to a rural Connecticut town to live with her matter-of-fact aunt Brat, her buoyant wife Eileen, their greyhound, and their elderly landlord, Elloroy. Soon after she arrives, they adopt a rambunctious rescue dog, Guffer, but Lydia isn't a dog person, and it takes time for her to warm to him. Formerly homeschooled by her mother, she must also adapt to the tiny school, where she eventually forms close friendships. Secrets prove a strong thread, including Lydia's missing dad and the rehabilitation of two maimed pygmy goats. Lydia has her own secret, too: she initially conceals paper collages of goddesses (e.g., the Goddess of Gratitude, the Goddess of the Third Heart) that Lydia and her mother created from salvaged objects to "cope and to keep hope" as her mother's heart grew weaker. When she shares these creations with both family and new friends after a mishap, their reaction to her revelation intensifies their bonds. Though the narrative's leisurely pace fits within the slow, tight-knit community, it can meander. What stands out is the narrative's essential kindness, as Lydia heals and rediscovers the meaning of home and family. Ages 10 up.
