Tag: sled dogs

Posted in Adventure, Fiction, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

Dog Driven is great action, survival fiction

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Dog Driven, by Terry Lynn Johnson, (Dec. 2019, HMH Books), $16.99, ISBN: 978-1328551597

Ages 9-13

Fourteen-year-old McKenna Barney is a musher: a dogsled racer, and she’s gearing up for The Great Superior Mail Run; a 3-day, 354-kilometer race that takes racers from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to White River, Ontario. The race is a tribute to the pioneer mail carriers who delivered mail along the shore of Lake Superior, and each participant is carrying a bag of mail that will receive special commemorative stamps. For McKenna’s 8-year-old sister, Emma, it’s the chance to put a spotlight on Stargardt disease, a disease that causes a loss of central vision. Emma has Stargardt’s disease, but what only Emma knows is that McKenna thinks she does, too. McKenna’s vision has started blurring, and she’s experiencing the same symptoms Emma developed at the disease’s onset. McKenna, determined to stay independent after seeing the strain Emma’s condition has put on her family, enters the race to deliver her sister’s message and because she doesn’t know if she’ll get to do this again. During the three-day race, she and her dogs are put to the test in brutal weather conditions: owl attacks; bitter cold; snow squalls, and shifting ice.

Dog Driven is SUCH good reading. McKenna emerges as a strong, smart character who you root for through the book. Her burgeoning friendship with fellow musher, Guy (pronounced “Geee”, with a hard G) provides a solid subplot to the story. Their partnership, despite being competitors, is light, fun, and vital to McKenna’s survival in the race and her determination to continue. Letters that our mushers are carrying, plus older letters from Guy’s great-great-grandfather, provide context and further investment in the race outside of the main storyline. Well-thought out characters, a strong survival in the wild story, and Terry Lynn Johnson’s incredible – and readable – knowledge of dogsled racing make this a must-read. Give this to your readers who’ve tackled I Survived and are ready for more; your Hatchet readers, and anyone who enjoys Terry Lynn Johnson other dog books and her Survival Diaries series.

Check out Terry Lynn Johnson’s author page for pictures of her sled dogs (SO CUTE), fun facts, and Survivor Diaries research.

Dog Driven has starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist.

 

Posted in Fiction, Middle Grade, Middle School, Realistic Fiction, Tween Reads

Mush! A baker and a sled dog racer work together in Cookie Cutters & Sled Runners

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Cookie Cutters and Sled Runners, by Natalie Rompella, (Nov. 2017, Sky Pony Press), $15.99, ISBN: 9781510717718

Recommended for readers 9-13

Ana and Lily are best friends, getting ready to start middle school together. They’re also burgeoning chefs, creating their own recipes with the goal of writing and selling their own cookbook one day. Things go awry when Ana and Lily discover that they’re not in one single class together, though; you see, Lily is the only person who understands Ana. The only person Ana wants as a friend. Lily understands Ana’s need to wash her hands and keep her cooking surfaces and food flawlessly clean; she knows that Ana can’t handle red food. She is Ana’s shield against the world. Ana ends up with the meanest teacher in sixth grade, too: Mr. Creed has a list of rules a mile long (“never use contractions in my class”) and decides that the big Exploration Project – the project Ana and Lily planned working on together – will be done in partnership with another person from class. Ana’s assigned Dasher, the new girl from Alaska, who dresses weird and wants to do a project on her favorite sport and hobby: sled dog racing!

I adore this book! I love the characters, and I love that in Ana, we get a positive portrayal of a character struggling with OCD. Cookie Cutters & Sled Runners gives us a central character that lives with a disorder, and incorporates that challenge into her daily living. Yes, we see Ana washing her hands and spraying down her surfaces; we read her internal struggle when she has to choose between cleaning and a critical moment in the story, but we also see her meeting with a therapist, being supported by her parents and friends, and working through her challenge through daily exercises and taking on new, exciting challenges. She’s not cured by the end of the story, but that’s not the point of the story: she’s growing, and she makes major gains here. Dasher is great fun to read, and I loved learning a little bit more about snow dog racing. Finally, I appreciated a middle grade novel that turns the “new friends” dilemma on its head by having the “rival friends” befriend one another and form a supportive group together.

A positive, upbeat story that introduces readers to characters with obsessive-compulsive behaviors and provides some insight on the challenges of daily life for those characters. have Wesley King’s OCDaniel on hand for readers who want to read and learn more.