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Searching... Lyons Public Library | JR JENNINGS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Because Faith hates her new life in Mexico, she and her faithful mutt, Edison, flee by rocket and find adventures which cause her to have a change of heart.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-An amusing tale, narrated by an articulate pooch. Scrounging in the streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Eddie is "un perro corriente," a Mexican expression meaning mutt. His "pawloose and fancy-free" life changes when he is adopted by a 70-year-old (in dog years) girl named Faith, who has moved from the U.S. with her mother to live with her Mexican stepfather. Homesick and unhappy at school, Faith commissions a rocket to be built from tin cans, fuels it with pig fat and jalapeño peppers, and prepares for takeoff. She and Eddie launch into a fantastic adventure involving an isolated bone-shaped island, a mysterious pack of "electric dogs," an ancient castaway, and a revelation about where home really is. Jennings provides Eddie with a flawless and funny canine voice. The pup's facility for understanding multiple tongues, both human and canine, makes a nice contrast to Faith's hesitant efforts with Spanish. Her feelings of isolation and lack of self-confidence are gently dealt with through humor. Although the happy ending may be tied together a little too neatly with coincidental plot twists, this fast-paced story is imaginative and full of fun. Words in Spanish-and a few in Bowwow-are defined in the margins, allowing readers to get in on the action.-Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Narrated by a Mexican street dog who befriends an unhappy girl and flies with her in a home-made rocket to an uncharted island, this first novel is "a soaring flight into magic realism," said PW in a starred review. Ages 8-up. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Edison, a multilingual Mexican dog, narrates the story of his relationship with Faith, a ten-year-old girl who is having a difficult time adjusting to her new home in Chiapas. The dog's tedious musings are frequently interrupted by translations (in the margins) of Spanish words in the text. Coupled with a complete absence of (human) character development, the story, like Faith's experimental rockets, simply fizzles. From HORN BOOK 1996, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A joy--an original, uniquely funny first novel that is thought-provoking as well, from a witty ambassador of languages and cultures. The first-person narrator, a little dog (``electric'' is wordplay on Spanish for ``current,'' as well as ``cheap'' and ``no good'') of the streets of Mexico, discovers a willful child, Faith, being harassed by boys. He saves her, and she brings him home where he observes the surroundings. ``I must admit to being a little naive,'' he says about the life of a house dog. ``Contrary to rumors,'' a house dog does not have his own chair at the dinner table, and kibbles are an unwelcome surprise. His point of view is of a worldly, street-wise character who understands many dog languages, several human languages, and a great deal about the transplanted girl from San Francisco who dislikes Mexico and wants to return ``home home'' so much that she designs a rocket to transport the two of them there. The adventures proceed at a fast clip, always accompanied by the priceless comments of the electric dog. The design of the book includes Jennings's chapter decorations in black-and-white and translations in the wide margins for the many Spanish words (and French and Bowwow--whatever comes up) effortlessly introduced into the story. A great read-aloud, y un libro perfecto! (glossary) (Fiction. 8-12)
Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-6. A book with a dog as the narrator (especially a dog having an "unusual facility with languages") is certain to include some interesting appraisals: "on the other side of the stream was a little crying girl. . . . She looked to me to be about seventy years old." The little crying girl, Faith, who is actually age 10, becomes the dog's new owner. She names the dog Edison because in Mexico, where she is living, a stray is called un perro corriente, which means "an electric dog." Faith has been crying for several reasons: she longs to return to San Francisco, she is sure she can't learn Spanish ("it's a physical impossibility"), and, most recently, her schoolmates have been taunting her and assaulting her with slingshots. Edison sympathizes with Faith's predicament, but he's hurt when she later wildly proclaims that she hates Mexico and Mexicans. After all, Edison is Mexican. But the faithful dog sticks by his owner, even when she eventually builds a rocket that takes them both to a desert island--a location where Eddie's gift for languages proves very useful. The magic realism, a thoughtful message, and the unconventional narrator, who remains solidly doglike despite his talent for reading and writing, add up to a first novel brimming with both charm and substance. The format is also appealing: the book is rather small and squarish in shape, and unfamiliar words (Spanish, French, and Bowwow) are translated in the margins and brought together in a glossary. Because readers so often find their beloved children's book dogs being sacrificed for the sake of drama, it is delightful to have a story in which the dog not only saves the day but also survives with his inimitable spirit intact. --Susan Dove Lempke