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rehtaehwashere's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
- What I liked: I loved how heartfelt this book is, and how Chance
grew to love Metal Head throughout the book . I love how Chance and the other 'real dogs' were so bitter about robot dogsuntil they saw Metal Head help an autistic child become more confident, especially with reading, with the lesson that everyone has different skill sets to offer. I liked seeing the dogs backstories with their previous lives and how they ended up in the shelter, and the realism with struggling to get bigger dogs adopted.I love that Chance found her way home eventually. - What I disliked: That the shelter staff were displayed as disliking the animals in their care and that certain sections of the shelter were there to keep dogs out of sight of adopters and were significantly worse than the main areas of the shelter. I disliked that the author quoted the 'one human year is seven dog years' rule which has been disproved, and I disliked that Metal Head
was depicted as the only robodog WORTH respecting because he was 'different than the others' which just gives bad vibes all around. I know it's simplistic because it's a children's book, but still. I also disliked the use of punishment for dogs - people who work with animals know very well that this doesn't actually work to teach them good behaviors and that shouldn't be a modality used in a shelter, fictional or otherwise. I hate that the owners didn't try harder to find Chance after she ran away and that they were neversuspicious of that dog sitter, and clearly didn't vet her very well, either. Good pet owners know you don't leave your animals with just ANYONE, especially not someone jumping away from your pets affection, and they don't choose someone they don't know or someone last minute. Yikes. - Overall thoughts: Cute story overall, I loved the relationships between the dogs and how they all dream of finding homes. I do think the authors need to do a bit more research on what they're writing about overall, though. For children's books they could have simply avoid listing inaccurate numbers (the age 'rule' mentioned above) and they definitely could've given Chance the push to
run away again without the punishment aspect which, again, is inappropriate. And they could've made Management not act so petty about it the first time Chance returns - it doesn't put shelters in a good light when the people working/volunteering there are depicted so poorly and shelters need all the support they can get. Authors really needed to be more careful with this, even in children's books. - Recommend to a friend? Maybe not - I work with animals and I don't like how shelters are depicted here even if the overall story is cute.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death
Very brief mentions of the rainbow bridge and 'The List' which again, depicts shelters in a VERY bad light. Not all shelters are shelters that euthanize, and those that are also have a VERY important place for animals.fyziksgirl's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Katherine Applegate is one of my favorite children's authors, but this book did not do it for me.
From the description I expected an adventure to find forever families, but really the portion where the characters leave the shelter is very short. Most of the book takes place in the shelter, complete with all the sad things that happen in a shelter, like getting to the top of "the list" and dogs thinking they're going to be put down. It is a very sad, anxiety-inducing book, and it feels like much of the point was to really emphasize to kids how terrible shelters are, which is a hard thing to put on them when kids cannot do much to materially help the situation without significant parent buy-in.
There's also a lot of ableism in this book, and though it's relatively low key, it's there and was hard to read as a disabled family. There's a ton of talk about how no one wants to see a dog with 3 legs and it is depressing to be around them. This is contradicted at the VERY end, but 99% of the book it is talked about as a given and an accepted thing everyone knows. They also talk about how no family would want an older dog because they'll have more vet bills. While this is true for dogs and dog adoptions, when you're anthropomorphizing the dogs to make them relatable to humans and like human stand-ins for deeper meaning, it sends a rough message to children (and adults) who need regular doctor visits and medical care and can feel like a burden on their family for it.
There's a nonspeaking autistic boy who visits the shelter and the happy arc of his story is how he begins talking and "entering the world in a way he never has," and while connection is necessary and good for humans, the whole thing has an off, ableist vibe in how it was framed. When he has a meltdown (partially from adults pushing him into it), he is suspended from returning; it is acknowledged it happened because of his disability not a choice but him, but the book treats as a given that it's a reasonable response to punish him for his disability and never acknowledges the responsibility of the adults in the situation. The human characters do care about him, though, the ableism was low-key, it just gave me the ick.
Overall a much sadder book than I was expecting. I thought it would be a hope-filled adventure, but it is mostly a depressing story of being stuck in a hard situation without the main character even looking to improve her life or imagining she could. It was 2 stars most of the way through for me, but at the end it bumped up to 3.5.
Definitely don't read if you've lost a dog recently.
From the description I expected an adventure to find forever families, but really the portion where the characters leave the shelter is very short. Most of the book takes place in the shelter, complete with all the sad things that happen in a shelter, like getting to the top of "the list" and dogs thinking they're going to be put down. It is a very sad, anxiety-inducing book, and it feels like much of the point was to really emphasize to kids how terrible shelters are, which is a hard thing to put on them when kids cannot do much to materially help the situation without significant parent buy-in.
There's also a lot of ableism in this book, and though it's relatively low key, it's there and was hard to read as a disabled family. There's a ton of talk about how no one wants to see a dog with 3 legs and it is depressing to be around them.
There's a nonspeaking autistic boy who visits the shelter and the happy arc of his story is how he begins talking and "entering the world in a way he never has," and while connection is necessary and good for humans, the whole thing has an off, ableist vibe in how it was framed. When he has a meltdown (partially from adults pushing him into it), he is suspended from returning; it is acknowledged it happened because of his disability not a choice but him, but the book treats as a given that it's a reasonable response to punish him for his disability and never acknowledges the responsibility of the adults in the situation. The human characters do care about him, though, the ableism was low-key, it just gave me the ick.
Overall a much sadder book than I was expecting. I thought it would be a hope-filled adventure, but it is mostly a depressing story of being stuck in a hard situation without the main character even looking to improve her life or imagining she could. It was 2 stars most of the way through for me, but at the end it bumped up to 3.5.
Definitely don't read if you've lost a dog recently.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
purplepenning's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Excrement, Abandonment, and Grief
Minor: Car accident, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail
atamano's review
emotional
fast-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, and Grief
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Car accident
Minor: Animal death and Excrement
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