The Field of the Dogs - Hardcover

Paterson, Katherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060294744 ISBN 13: 9780060294748

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

It was all so unfair. Josh hadn't wanted to move with his mother to Vermont. Now, on top of a new stepfather and new baby brother, Josh is faced with a new school, and worse: a menacing bully.

Then Josh stumbles upon a secret. Following his dog, Manch, out to a field near the woods one day, Josh overhears Manch and his other dog friends talking! Not only that, Josh discovers that Manch and his friends are also faced with a bully--a pack of bullies, in fact, who are threatening a fight. The dogs don't want Josh's help, but still Josh thinks he can solve their problems and his own with one simple solution. The only hitch to his plan: It's dangerous.

Taut and suspenseful, Katherine Paterson's exciting chapters, together with Emily Arnold McCully's pen-and-ink drawings, debuted in more than a hundred newspapers across the country as part of the Breakfast Serials program and are here published for the first time as a book.

About this title

About the Author

Katherine Paterson is one of the world’s most celebrated and beloved authors. Among her many awards are two Newberys and two National Book Awards, and she was recently named a "Living Legend” by the Library of Congress. She has been published in more than 22 languages in a variety of formats, from picture books to historical novels.

From Publishers Weekly

Originally published chapter by chapter in newspapers as part of the "Breakfast Serials" program, this disappointing story juggles an uneasy mix of realism and fantasy. Narrator Josh has just moved from Virginia to Vermont with his mother, her new husband and their infant son. During a snow day (forcing his school closing), Josh searches for his dog, Manch, and finds the pooch in a field playing--and laughing--with three canine pals (Manch tells the alpha dog, Ace, that they'll have to set some ground rules for play, and Ace responds, "Well, it's always three to one. Twelve legs to four"). Josh then listens as they talk in human speech about the River Gang, a rival group of larger dogs headed up by a fierce weimaraner. Manch never speaks in human words to Josh again until Ace is badly hurt, hit by a snowplow while fighting with one of the enemy dogs. In a parallel plot, Josh copes with Wes, a bullying classmate and neighbor, whose help he eventually seeks out after making a futile attempt to shoot the weimaraner with his stepfather's rifle as the two dog packs fight. Paterson's (The Smallest Cow in the World) potentially intriguing premise of talking dogs isn't fully integrated into the tale, so it ends up calling attention to itself rather than moving the story forward. Though minimal and sometimes murky, McCully's (Mirette on the High Wire) black-and-white line art may well encourage reluctant readers, as will the book's brief chapters and the text's relatively large type size. Ages 8-12.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060294744
• ISBN 13: 9780060294748
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96
• Illustrator: McCully Emily Arnold