Because of Shoe and Other Dog Stories

Ann M. Martin's Because of Shoe and Other Dog Stories is a collection of dog stories for 8 year olds, put together by an editor whose own dog takes most of the credit.

What happens

The introduction is written by Sadie. Sadie is Ann Martin's dog, and she would like you to know that none of this would exist without her.

Before Sadie arrived, Ann was a cat person. Then she wasn't. So when a publisher asked about a book of dog stories, the answer was yes. Sadie signs off hoping you enjoy reading about the superior race of canines.

That's the tone, and it carries on into the stories. Nine writers, nine dogs, and a good run through everything dogs get up to. A boy who turns into one. A dog who pulls a family back together. One who kept a very great artist company in Paris a long time ago. Brave ones, funny ones, rescuers.

The opener is called Dognapper and it's a fair sign of the rest. Tyler gets home from school to hear his dachshund Max howling, which Max never does. Next door, Pippa the poodle has gone. Eleven poodles have vanished from the town already and nobody has turned up a single clue.

Then Max digs his way under the fence and starts tracking.

The good bit is that you're inside Max's head as much as Tyler's. Max is a pet. Nobody has trained him for any of this. He just gets his nose down and goes, on six-inch legs, past horses and rabbits and a hundred smells worth stopping for, and doesn't stop.

Meanwhile Tyler runs the wrong way entirely, which is very satisfying to read when you already know where the dog went.

The stories are arranged so the easy ones come first and the longer ones later. That's handy if your reader likes to dip in, and it means one story is a perfectly good bedtime.

The writing is American, so expect mom, sidewalk and cotton candy. Nothing a confident reader will trip over.

What to read next

If the dog's-eye chunks are the ones they go back and read twice, Hank the Cowdog is a whole book of exactly that. Hank is Head of Ranch Security, he will tell you so himself several times, and he takes the job far more seriously than anyone else on the ranch does.