Maggie the Shih Tzu Detective: Volume Ii: Courage

By V. Taylor Small

Fifteen-year-old Veronica Stevens is something of a tough girl. She lives in Brooklyn with her dad and Maggie, their twelve-year-old shih tzu. Maggie can talk, and so can some of the other animals who live in the building—but only Veronica can hear them. Maggie is a big help to Veronica, someone who helps keep her on the straight and narrow.

She’ll need the support, as soon, Veronica will have to build up her courage and assist her cousins facing some of life’s challenges. She and Maggie must turn to the best place they know for guidance: the scriptures.

In this novella for young readers, a teenager leans on her faith as she supports two of her cousins through difficult circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664181595

V. Taylor Small

V. Taylor Small is known for her ability to create heartwarming stories filled with valuable lessons and unforgettable characters, as she has so splendidly done in Maggie The Shih-Tzu. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. This is her first children’s book.

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Copyright © 2021 by v. taylor SMALL.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Rev. date: 06/28/2021

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To my living hero, Yeshua, with sincere

thanks for all You’ve done and keep doing

for me. I love You, need You, respect You,

and cherish You, my friend, my King!

In loving memory of Linda Small, a dear sister who

helped raise me. May Elohim rest your lovely soul.

Acknowledgments

Thank you Dan G. for telling me about your lovely dog Fred Astaire, may he rest in doggie heaven.

Special thanks to Monica N. DeWalt and Gloria J. DeWalt. You both have always been in my corner. You are the best daughters a mother could ever ask for. Remember Matthew 5:16. I love you dearly. May you always give praise and never forget our Great King Yeshua. He has risen!

Let everything you say be good and

helpful, so that your words will be an

encouragement to those who hear them.

—Ephesians 4:29

It’s spring, time for the school’s spring break. Excitement is in the air. For some, it’s because it’ll soon be Easter Sunday. Some people like to call Easter Sunday Resurrection Sunday. Those words are so powerful to some and sound so beautiful. Believers and nonbelievers are covered by what Jesus did for humankind. But no matter which words are used to celebrate, the day’s joyfulness is in the air.

It’s Friday. School closes a half-day early, letting kids go home to enjoy their break and prepare if they are going on vacations. Veronica, now fifteen, is something of a tough girl. She loves throwing her long, curly, jet-black hair in a high bun with some curls hanging down in the front and wearing her pink high-top Converse sneakers and a light-gray sweatshirt. Her gold hoop earrings complement her dark-chocolate skin.

She shoulders her backpack and hurries home so she can make her own lunch, which she loves to do every chance she gets. Franks and baked beans are her favorite. Since her dad is still at work, she will even be able to cut up four franks instead of two to put in her beans and share with her friend, Maggie, since she loves it as well.

Veronica lives in a citylike area within a thirty-minute walking distance of her school, or fifteen minutes if she takes a shortcut through alleyways, which she is not supposed to take. Her building, an elegant, historic-looking brick eight-family walk-up in Brooklyn with some nearby sidewalk cafés, has four single-floor apartments and four duplex apartments. Their apartment is a duplex with two upstairs bedrooms.

Excited and eager to get home, Veronica takes a different route home, the shortcut that her dad always told her to avoid because the alleys can be sort of creepy and deserted at times. A clean and shiny blue car stops abruptly, dumps a box on the sidewalk a few feet from Veronica, and then speeds off. Veronica slowly walks past the box. She gets a couple of steps past the box and hears something. She stops, walks back to the box, and cautiously peeks inside, not knowing what she will see.

The sun is beaming down on the box. When she looks in the box, she sees a really small, whimpering puppy with a red-and-black face and large, brown-and-red eyes staring up at her.

Oh my gosh! Veronica exclaims. You poor little thing. Don’t worry! I’ll take care of you now. Veronica throws her backpack fully on her back, scoops up the box, and rushes home with the little pup.

She reaches home, sets the box on the steps, takes off her backpack, and scrambles to find her keys. Maggie, who is now twelve years old, can hear Veronica trying to come in and starts barking anxiously for her owner to enter so she can show her much love. Maggie used to be white, black, and dark brown, but she is now mostly white and light brown.

Finally Veronica gets to her keys. She opens the door and drops her knapsack in the entryway, gently placing the box down. There is a desk with a bowl where they keep keys. She drops her keys in the bowl and takes off her sneakers. She picks up the box and rushes into the kitchen to get the little pup some water, with Maggie on her heels. Veronica carefully places the box on the