The Green Dog: A Mostly True Story - Hardcover

Staples, Suzanne Fisher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374327793 ISBN 13: 9780374327798

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2003

Synopsis

By the author of Shabanu, a Newbery Honor Book

The summer after fourth grade, a lonely girl wants just one thing: a dog. It's all she can think of. She tries everything to convince her parents to let her have one, but nothing works. She is sure that she will spend another whole summer alone – dogless and friendless – with no one to share her adventures in the woods and waterways of northeastern Pennsylvania. Just when things look bleakest, a dog appears on the side of the road and needs rescuing. He looks exactly like the dog she's been dreaming of. Together they spend long, golden days fishing, swimming, and exploring the woods. Jeff works his magic on everyone in the house, but it's soon evident that he has a nose for trouble, like digging up the neighbor's rhubarb patch and overturning a pail of green paint. Suzanne’s father rapidly loses patience. "One more incident," he warns, "and that dog is going to the farm."

This heartwarming story, taken from the author's childhood, will remind readers of all ages what it’s like to wish for something so hard – and to love something so completely – it makes your heart ache.

About this title

From the Author:

A note from the author:
In September 2001, I traveled to Chapman Lake, Pennsylvania, for the first time in many years to attend my mother's funeral. She had spent much of her last year helping me remember the events of "the summer of the green dog," some of which remain a mystery – including the exact circumstances under which that charming dog insinuated himself into our family. Although my mother was blind and in a wheelchair by then, her sense of wonder and humor were childlike, and her memories clarified and deepened my own.

Chapman Lake was still beautiful, though more developed and gentrified, and when I saw it that day I had an almost irresistible urge to dangle my legs over the edge of the dock and drop a line in the water, just as I'd done the summer I was ten. I wanted to walk through the woods quietly, on the balls of my feet, to see whether the tadpoles among the reeds at the edge of the pond had lost their tails.

I’ve called this "a mostly true story" because events don’t unfold in precisely the same way as they did in real life. Now that I've had a while to reflect on the changes the passage of time has wrought on both the place and my perception of it, I'm thinking The Green Dog might more aptly be called "an essentially true story." It was not accuracy that yielded the essence of what it was like to have grown up in my family, in that time and place. It was reflection – and that one last great gift from my mother.

About the Author:

Suzanne Fisher Staples is also the author of many acclaimed books for young readers, including Shiva’s Fire and Dangerous Skies, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0374327793
• ISBN 13: 9780374327798
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128