Strays
By Jennifer Caloyeras
(Ashland Creek Press,  ISBN: 978-1-61822-037-0, May 15, 2015,  232pp.)

The Short of It:

A sweet story with a lot of heart.

The Rest of It:

Iris Moody is sixteen-years-old and angry. Angry over her mother’s death, the fact that her dad doesn’t have time for her and to top it off she’s failing English. It doesn’t seem like things could get much worse, But when an entry in her journal is mistaken for a threat against a teacher, she lands herself a summer of community service. Community service which involves dogs. Of which, she’s been afraid of for as long as she can remember.

Iris is a complicated character. She’s got a lot going on between her pent-up anger over her mother’s death and the fears she’s forced to confront in the dog training program she’s been assigned to. She can’t be around dogs without getting nervous so it baffles her when she’s assigned to an abused, three-legged pit bull named Roman. Of all the dogs to get, why this one?

This is a sweet story about a girl and a dog and how hard it is to let go of the past in order to get on with the future. It’s a story about trust, redemption and acceptance. I really enjoyed it. Readers young and old will appreciate this one.

To read more about Jennifer Caloyeras, check out her website.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.