FINISHED:
Glass, Linzi. (2010). Finding Danny. New York: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins.

[Bree is an only child whose parents are both in the news business: mom is a TV news reporter who’s working her way up to newscaster, and dad is a journalist who travels the world to be on the frontline of world events. In an effort to alleviate Bree’s loneliness her parents give her a fluffy dog named Danny to love and take care of. When Bree’s mother, in a rush, accidentally leaves the yard gate open, Danny escapes and Bree is introduced to the “dingy, smelly, and full of sadness” world of LA animal shelters. Here she meets a wayward “hippie” waif, Rayleen, who can’t seem to stay in one place for long but who loves and takes in abandoned and found dogs. Meanwhile, Bree is dealing with typical preteen worries: are her best girlfriends drifting away? Does she even WANT to spend her friend’s birthday at the spa? Does the most popular (and UBER-richest) boy in school actually like her? While the introduction to young readers of the world of animal shelters is a valuable one, the effect is drowned in the self-congratulations of the wealthy who are drastically out of touch with the real world and who feel that they have done their part to help the less fortunate. [I mean, the characters in this book live in gated “estates” and go to a gated high school, their parents all involved in the Hollywood film and TV business.] Bree’s brilliant (and pat) idea is to host an adopt-a-thon for all of the dogs that are slated to be euthanized in the next week and, of course, somehow, EVERY dog gets adopted. Will Bree be around every week to keep all of LA’s stray dogs from being put-down, or has her one good deed for the underprivileged given her ample karma points? Clichéd and self-serving with a picture-perfect ending. Blah.]

STARTED:
Beam, Cris. (2011). I am J. New York: Little, Brown.

[Reading for ACL Distinguished.]

*