Waggit's Tale - Hardcover

Howe, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061242616 ISBN 13: 9780061242618

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2008

Synopsis

He is nameless.
He is homeless.
He is friendless.
He is lost.

Until he is found . . . by a team of mutts who shelter him and teach him how to survive the wilds of the city park.

And so he becomes Waggit, the best hunter and tracker in the pack, and the dog with the most powerfully wagging tail. Waggit grows to love his team, especially its leader, Tazar, and his best friend, an old dog named Lowdown.

But life in the park is dangerous and uncertain. In winter, food and warmth are scarce. Another team of wild dogs is a constant menace. And always, there is the fear of capture by park rangers. Waggit can't help feeling that something is missing . . . something warm and cozy and . . . human. Then one day everything changes and Waggit must face a new threat and a new choice.

Peter Howe's tale of an abandoned puppy's search for a home is an exciting mix of humor, adventure, and suspense. Most of all, it is a story of how love can turn strangers into family.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Howe was born in London, lived in New York for more than thirty years, and currently resides in Connecticut with his wife and two dogs. He is a former New York Times Magazine and Life magazine picture editor and the author of two books on photography, Shooting Under Fire and Paparazzi. He is also the author of the Waggit’s Tale series, about an abandoned dog and his pack who live in Central Park.

Reviews

Grade 4–6—An abandoned puppy meets Tazar, leader of a pack of dogs that ekes out a precarious living in Central Park. The animals accept him and name him Waggit, after his constantly wagging tail, and he gradually learns how to hunt and scavenge for food and negotiate the many hazards of the park. Most important of all, he learns to distrust humans, or "Uprights." Then Waggit is captured by animal-control officers and taken to the pound. When a woman adopts him, he discovers what it's like to be a companion dog and to be treated kindly by a human, even though it means being completely dependent. This is an engaging story, and the various canine characters are depicted in loving detail. Howe does not romanticize the lives of feral dogs; Waggit, Tazar, and the rest of the pack contend with hunger, illness, and serious injuries. However, the tone of this book is less somber than Ann M. Martin's A Dog's Life (Scholastic, 2005), which deals with similar subject matter.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ
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When a white puppy gets lost in the park, he earnestly assumes that his owner will search for him. Only later, when he joins a well-organized pack of homeless dogs, does he recognize that he has been abandoned. His new friends name him Waggit for his lively tail and train him in the ways of survival. Led by the astute Tazar, the dogs have staked out a secluded tunnel in a place much like Central Park, where they spend their days gathering food, protecting one another, spying on a rougher gang of dogs, and avoiding the “Great Unknown”—the pound. Enhanced by Rayyan’s chapter-header drawings, Howe’s children’s-book debut presents a charming, mostly episodic tale complete with endearing characters and a convincing, invented lexicon: humans, for instance, are “Uprights,” and winter is the “Long Cold.” Though a development that takes Waggit away from the close-knit pack may leave some readers disappointed, the thoughtful questions raised by his decision elevate this gentle fantasy a notch above simpler animal-survival tales. Grades 4-8. --Anne O'Malley

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061242616
• ISBN 13: 9780061242618
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Rayyan Omar
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288