Strudel's Forever Home

Gr 3–5—Everyone has troubles—both humans and animals. Arne is too bossy and reeks of cigarettes, a mom deals with management worries, a boy gets pushed into doing bad deeds by a neighborhood bully, cats lose their homes and become feral, and a dog gets spooked by thunder and runs away. These myriad issues overlap and somehow become problems for one little dachshund to solve in Freeman's latest novel for younger middle grade readers. Jake, a struggling reader, practices reading aloud at an animal shelter. There he meets Strudel, who likes the book Chief, Dog of the Old West as much as Jake. Though the work is about rustlers and stampedes and Jake's milieu is completely urban, Strudel imagines himself as Jake's canine sidekick. Jake eventually adopts the little dog, and the two become a team. Jake needs all the help he can get when a neighborhood bully talks him into committing petty crimes for cash. Strudel has his own troubles when a band of feral cats demand that he give up his food. Some problems get solved, while others are left hanging—perhaps due to the fact that the tale is told from the dog's point of view. Strudel is an admirable canine pal who tries to help Jake make the right decisions. Jake, on the other hand, doesn't always own up to his bad deeds. It's unusual to find a children's book in which the good guy turns out to be the dog while the human is left wanting.