1992 - Shiloh

Dates read: March 2008
Read or listened to: Listened to
Pages: 128 pp.
Rating: ●●●●○

I'd have to say that this book surprised me. I am not a "boy and his dog" book-lover. I've never had a dog and although they are cute and I am glad that Abby is not afraid of them, I am not terribly sentimental towards them. Having said that, this was a good book. Marty comes across an injured beagle that he falls in love with. Unfortunately, the dog is not his (duh) and he knows who it belongs to--the mean poacher in town. So how do you do the right thing (give the dog back to its owner) when the wrong thing (the owner's been kicking it) has been happening (and will likely continue to happen). As the ethical questions arose, lingered and changed throughout the book, I found myself putting myself in the child's position and more often in the parents' position. (I'm a mom now. How am I going to help/teach my kids to deal with these issues? They're going to need to internalize the principles so that when situations arise they can apply them judiciously.) These were pretty tough questions and I don't know if I would have handled it all the same as Marty and his family handled it or not. (OK--so I wouldn't have because we'll never have a dog, but back to the book:) I really don't know. I found myself fighting some decisions throughout the book, but can the end justify the means at times? I am really pretty black and white when it comes to lying and such, but then I find myself conveniently altering or omitting facts when I need to. Don't we all? It was good.

I am grateful for happy endings--did they do what was right? Anyways, I came across this on Amazon and had to chuckle. Is this really what we want for our kids?

Book's weak point: The author sacrificed potential emotional depth for the smiles and hugs of a happy ending. I think a much more realistic ending would have been the father disregarding the feelings of his sensitive son and sending the dog back to the abusive owner, the mother not lifting a finger to protect her son's feelings, and the owner killing the dog as he promised all along. Basically, I think the author didn't have the guts to do it, and thus be able to transmit a real message to the audience about how the world is - essentially how cruel and uncaring parents really can be. The boy becoming aware of such things would have hurt (him and us), but would at least have been REAL and given us the base of potential from which to GROW and not just keep our heads in the sand, leading us further down the path of denial...and ultimately toward perpetuating the same patterns those parents did. Only emotional honesty (as opposed to the fantasy ending of this book) will break such cycles.

I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather that kids learn (at least occasionally) that families can be happy, parents can be loving and life's situations can turn out positively in our favor. Just a thought!