Humorous and touching, the words in this book celebrate the combination of unconditional love, loyalty, inquisitiveness, instinct, and distraction that enrich the lives of all who call dogs their friends.
Teens speak for themselves in honest and forthright essays while Joyce Sidman's insightful poems further express the bond between dog and teen: how days of crowded hallways, pointless assignments, and blinding crushes are brought to balance by our four-footed, wet-nosed canine friends. For as Doug Mindell's winning photographs confirm, at the end of the day, waiting at home, there is always Dog—full of hope and companionship.
Joyce Sidman is the author of several books of poetry and is a writer-in-residence for Minneapolis schools. She was inspired to create this tribute to our canine friends during a time of great personal crisis, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. What started as poems about her beloved companion, Merlin, struck a chord with her writers' group. They would tell her stories of their own dogs, and Sidman incorporated these stories into more poems. After strong word of mouth attention and posting a call for essays on the NCTE and CCBC list serves, Joyce Sidman received essays and poems from young people across the country.
Doug Mindell lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife and son, where he enjoys gardening and coaching Little League baseball. This is his first book.
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