Dog Diaries Series

For anyone who has ever wanted a puppy, the Dog Diaries series tells a dog's story in a new way—from a dog's point of view! Focusing on a different breed for each book, these stories are based on true dog stories or on true-to-life situations. Born in a puppy mill, Ginger the golden retriever looks back on her life and the various people who have "owned" her. Abruptly separated from her mother, littermates, and the wire cage that was her whole world, Ginger is shuttled from one harrowing situation to another until she finally escapes, living as an outlaw with a pack of wild dogs. But freedom doesn't feel so good once she becomes hungry and cold and sick. Will Ginger ever find a furever family to call her own? Appendix features information about puppy mills, breed rescue groups, animal shelters, choosing a pet, and the history of golden retrievers.

Small, feisty Siberian husky Togo—the overlooked sled-dog hero of the 1925 serum run to Nome—sets the record straight in Dog Diaries #4! When a diptheria epidemic breaks out in isolated Nome, Alaska, in January 1925, the only way to get life-saving serum to the town is by using dog-sled relay teams. Twenty teams participate, and the dog who inevitably gets credit for saving the town is Balto, lead dog on the final team which delivered the serum. But few people have ever heard of twelve-year-old Togo and his musher Leonard Seppala, who carried the serum for almost double the length of any other team, and twice violated warnings to avoid perilous Norton Sound and instead ran straight over the frozen ice! Togo's tale is perfect for middle-grade readers who love a spunky underdog!

Barry der Menschenretter—a.k.a. Barry—the most famous St. Bernard dog in history, tells the story of his life for the first time. Eight-thousand feet above sea level, in the treacherous pass in the Alps between Italy and Switzerland, the monks of the hospice of St. Bernard have, since the eleventh century, kept dogs to help them rescue travelers lost in the snow. In time, these dogs became a breed unto themselves, named for the hospice. They are responsible for helping over 2,000 travelers who might otherwise have frozen to death. With great modesty, Barry tells not just about his own heroic exploits (saving over forty lives, including that of a twelve-year-old boy frozen in a cave), but about his daily life in the hospice, his close relationship with the brothers who train him, and about the other hospice hounds with whom he teams up to guide lost travelers and save lives. With an appendix with information about St. Bernards, the Great St. Bernard Hospice, and much, more—Barry's tale is perfect for dog-crazy middle-grade readers!