Whippoorwill

Gr 7 Up—The effects of a person's actions and inactions are writ large in a small, modern-day New Hampshire town. To 16-year-old Clair's way of thinking, she and the neglected black lab next door, Wally, have a lot in common. Though their circumstances differ physically, each has slipped into individual fogs of resignation. Wally's pitiful state prompts Clair to action. She takes it upon herself to tend and train him. The neighbor's teenage son, Danny, insists on helping. The girl's journey toward confidence, optimism, and empathy matches step for step Wally's journey toward a healthy, happy, well-adjusted pet. Soon, Clair and Danny's relationship hiccups into uncertain romance. The teens are fully realized characters. At first, their paths are in sync as they try to spin color into the grayness of their lives. However, when Danny (rightfully) and Clair (by association) are arrested, tragedy strikes. How Clair chooses to handle this abrupt end to her carefully cultivated happiness is marked by new maturity and wisdom that come packaged, she learns, with benefits of their own. Peopling the corners of the story are robust secondary characters—Clair's loving but unsure dad and Danny's skeevy father. Wally's goofy good nature is unrelenting and utterly endearing. The narrative adeptly portrays longing and belonging, and the heartbreak and hope of not only the human condition, but the canine one as well.