Elle's Story: A Dog's Purpose Novel by W. Bruce Cameron

8 and Up 

This book stars Ellie, a very special dog with a very important purpose. From puppyhood, Ellie has been trained as a search-and-rescue dog. She can track down a lost child in a forest or an injured victim under a fallen building. She finds people. She saves them. It’s what she was meant to do.

When I found this book at the library and saw that sweet little dog’s face, I knew I just had to read this book.

You might remember reading about special service dogs in my past post ‘What the Dog Said’ by Randi Reisfeld. But Ellie helps people in a different way. Instead of being trained to help someone in a wheelchair, she’s trained to track down missing and injured people.

Dogs are amazing creatures and you can teach them to do so many different things. The most amazing thing about Ellie is how focused she is. When she’s searching for someone, there are all sorts of distractions around her; food smells, kids, other people’s smells, but she always stays on track.

It’s so well written that I really believed these were the thoughts of a dog. Throughout the book, Ellie seems to be able to sense how other people are feeling, whether sad, happy, frustrated or afraid. I think dogs are able to sense how humans are feeling because my dog Dude always seems to know when I’m sad.

Save Me A Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan

4^th Grade and Up 

Joe and Ravi might be from very different places, but they’re both stuck in the same place: SCHOOL.

Joe’s lived in the same town all his life, and was doing just fine until his best friends moved away and left him on his own.

Ravi’s family just moved to America from India, and he’s finding it pretty hard to figure out where he fits in.

Joe and Ravi don’t think they have anything in common but soon enough they have a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and a common mission: to take control of their lives over the course of a single crazy week.

The two things that I found so interesting about this book were the books’ authors and the book cover. Just look at it. The top tray’s American and the bottom tray is Indian obviously but check out the authors’ names. Sarah Weeks, born and raised in the United States, and Gita Varadarajan, born and raised in India. To learn more about these authors check out ‘About the Authors’ at the end of the book.

Unlike ‘Mission Mumbai’, which is told in the American boy’s point-of-view, this story is told in the point-of-view of the American boy, Joe, and the Indian boy, Ravi. I liked hearing Ravi’s opinion on his situation throughout the story.

Ravi doesn’t seem to get that he’s the weird new kid from a different country and he expects to start school the same way he did in India with him being the best in the class and being popular. Joe, on the other hand, knows he’s different and has accepted it. Something that he and I have in common.

I really related to the character Joe, who has Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), a disorder I’ve never heard of until now. I remember being a lot like him when I was in school, uncomfortable with loud noises and being thought as stuck up when I was really just shy. Unlike him, when I was taken to get extra help I didn’t understand why I was there.

The bully who always had his underwear showing really confused me. When did it stop being embarrassing to be seen in your underwear? I always wondered what would happen if someone came up and pulled down the person’s pants completely. Would they be embarrassed or not? Then again I’ve seen people walk around with their pants practically around their ankles so probably not.

The bully in this story is the worst type of bully, the popular kid who fools the teachers and everyone else into thinking he’s great except for the person the kid is bullying. I think I would have been bullied a lot more if I hadn’t hung around the grown ups so much back in elementary school or was so good at hiding. If you have ever been bullied, check out the song ‘Hey Bully’ sung by Morgan Frazier on YouTube. It’s pretty inspiring.

This story is also great way to teach kids about empathy and to never assume anything about anyone because you never know what’s going on inside in someone else’s head.