Gus is a livestock guardian dog with one jobāprotecting his farm from coyotes and foxes. He likes keeping the sheep, the chickens, and his humans safe, and heās very good at it.
One day, Diego and his dad come to visit the farm, and Gus immediately connects to the small boy. They both like to sit still and enjoy the quiet, and Gus can tell that Diego likes being around a gentle giant of a dog, that it helps relieve the boyās constant worry.
When Gus detects the scent of a bear in the woods, he rushes to protect his flock, injuring his leg in a fight with the dangerous beast. Wounded, Gus needs to rest and heal away from his sheep, so he doesnāt risk reinjuring his leg. Diego suggests Gus come home with them to the North Carolina coast.
Suddenly, Gus is thrust into a new world of saltwater and sand and neighbors who donāt appreciate the presence of a large guard dog, like the neighbor who reminds Gus of his first ownerāthe junkyard man with the heavy boots.
Gus realizes Diego might need a friend as much as his sheep need a protector, but if he canāt learn to control his instincts, like barking and patrolling the neighborhood, Gus might lose his chance to stay in his new home. If he canāt protect the farm or his boy, Gus worries he might never find his place in the world.
Plot:
Gus was a working dog, his job was to protect the sheep. Unlike Nando and Stella, dogs whose purposes include protecting their humans Esperanza and Cloe, Gusās purpose was protecting the entire farm from coyotes and foxes. It was important, but as a Great Pyrenees, it was also in his DNA. When Esperanzaās brother visits them, bringing his son Diego, Gus finds a connection with a shy boy who needed a friend. When protecting the farm leads to Gus getting hurt and unable to protect the sheep, Diego begs his dad to let them take Gus home to the Outer Banks, at least while Gus is healing. Leaving the farm for the first time, Gus is a little taken aback by this strange world so very different than his farm. Some neighbors do not like dogs, words like ācomeā and āstayā that Esperanza never used, and the ocean that Gus could swim in for hours. Yet, like the farm, Gus does have a job, and where it is not during the sheep from coyotes, it is giving Diego the strength to overcome his social anxiety. Diego wanted a friend, like Gus always wanted an owner, and the two of them form an unbreakable bond that solidifies a well-known fact that dogs are a man's best friend.
Thoughts:
McCall Hoyle brings us back to Esperanazaās farm, this time telling us the story of Gus, the farm dog who never was supposed to be a pet. With fast pace writing, Hoyle successfully targets her young reader's audience with easy writing that makes the plot easy to follow. The story is told from the perspective of Gus, our dog, giving it a unique tale as readers can laugh about the human things done throughout the novel that confuse Gus, to appreciate the hard work our dog puts into building relationships with the humans, his human in particular Diego. Like many children, Diego struggles with social anxiety and finds Gus to help him find the courage to do things that he normally fears, like talking to strangers. With a rise in social anxiety among youth, this story serves as a way to remind people that they are not alone in their anxiety and that there are ways to get better, like Diego getting Gus to be his emotional support animal. The parts of the novel I did not like, not that it matters to children, is why the other dogs do not speak. We know dogs can communicate with each other, and Hoyle proves that Stella has a fantastic voice, yet in this novel, Gus just sees her and Nando as other dogs, unable to communicate with them as he could with the readers. It is frustrating because I feel like Hoyle could add so much to the story by allowing our past narrator Stella and current narrator Gus to talk to each other and share what they learn. Where this is a completely stand-alone novel, it is nice knowing the story behind Stella and Cloe as Hoyle builds a relationship between Gus and Diego. Overall, it is another fantastic dog-narrating novel for Hoyle that teaches children with social anxiety how to find the courage to speak up for the things they believe in and find friendship in a four-legged friend.
Ever since Stella was a puppy, she was trained to use her powerful beagle nose to sniff out chemicals used in explosives and warn her human handler in order to keep people safe.
But during a routine security inspection, Stella is distracted and misses the scent of an explosive chemical. The sound of the blast is loud and scary. Stella survives but her handlerāher best friend in the whole worldāis gone. Stella blames herself, certain sheās a bad dog.
Scared of loud noises, especially thunder and fireworks, Stella struggles with her anxiety and must be retired from being a service animal. Several families try to foster her, but sometimes Stella is so scared she howls or digs or tears things up with her teeth. She wonders if anyone will want to adopt her.
An expert dog trainer, Esperanza, thinks she can help. Itās Stellaās last chance to prove she can be a good dog. Stella has every reason to love her new family, especially the young human named Chloe who smells like chocolate chip cookies, newly cut grass, the pages of books, and something elseāa strange chemical she canāt quite identify.
Chloe has epilepsy, and a chemical inside her body surges just before she has a seizure. Stellaās nose makes the connection. But how can she warn Esperanza without her thinking itās just Stellaās usual anxiety? How can she convince her new family that she can be a new kind of service dog and hopefully save Chloeās life?
Told from Stellaās point of view, readers will experience life through a dogās eyes, ears, and, especially, her nose. Like Babe the pig or Ivan the gorilla, Stella the beagle is an extraordinary story for kids who love animals. An endearing novel of courage, compassion, friendship, and love.
Plot:
Stella is a beagle and was told she was the best girl in the world by Connie. But, Connie does not say that to her anymore, because Connie is dead and it is all Stellaās fault. As a bomb-sniffing dog, Stella worked at an airport and knew how important she and Connie's job was to keep people safe. Yet, when Stella was thinking about supper rather than the funny smelling suitcase, she sent it through and ended up causing a massive and deadly explosion. Now suffering PTSD, Stella has been with three families in a row, all unable to deal with her anxiety and behaviors. With her last human, Diana, sending Stella to her death sentence, a new opportunity appeared to Stella. One of Connieās old college friends and experienced dog trainer, Esperanza, takes Stella on, bringing her home to her daughter Cloe. Cloe, knowing Stellaās risk, begs her mom to let her train Stella to be an agility dog, something beagles are normally not used for. Working hand in hand, Stella learns to sense Cloe's body chemistry and knows when her small human is about to have a seizure. With neighborhood bullies and a sheepdog that does not want to play, Stella must adjust to this new lifestyle, one she wants only knows it is only for good girls, and she is a very very bad one for hurting Connie.Ā
Thoughts:Ā
I never thought a dog would make me so emotional, but McCall Hoyle had me with this beautiful tale written from the point of view of Stella, a beagle. Stella has PTSD which causes her anxiety, and that is clearly demonstrated throughout the book as Stella knows what she has to do to be a good dog, but her body and mind will not let her. Every single main character is loveable in this novel, as Hoyle has you falling in love with Stella, Cloe, Esperanza, and the other animals on the farm as well. With easy writing and a short plot, I finished this book in a day, leaving me with happy feelings and wanting a dog. Hoyle did their research with this one, as research has shown that beagles can sniff up epileptic seizures in people with 100% accuracy for up to 45 minutes before it happens, which is what Hoyle has for Cloe and Stella. Honestly, this book hits you on both ends of the emotional scale, you have Cloe who struggles to make friends thus her reliance on pets, and Stella who is suffering from PTSD and relies on humans constantly being around her. Meant for a younger audience, like elementary students, I would read this novel even at my old age (23 is old friends), as it is a cute, funny, lovable story about a little girl and her dog.Ā
Hello everyone, and welcome to the biggest tour I have ever been a part of! From July 22nd to August 2nd, OVER 70 POSTS (including reviews, interviews, guest posts and more!) will go up, so make sure you check out the schedule below to see what is going up and when. I will put they post type next to the blog name in case you just want to jump around!
I read Meet the Sky in one rainy afternoon and it was a good day. #bookzen Check out the rest of my review and follow the tour! #ffbctours @flyingbookclub
āItās amazing how the storm of the century shook up our lives. [ā¦] My physical world suffered damage, but nothing that power tools and hard work wonāt eventually fix. My emotional world, on the other hand, evolved into something completely new and different.ā
It all started with the accident. The one that caused Sophieās dad to walk out of her life. The one that left Sophieās older sister,ā¦
[Free Audiobooks] Spill by Leigh Fondakowski & Meet the Sky by McCall Hoyle [Oil Spill Disaster Documentary Play & New Adult Romance]
AudioFile's SYNC Summer of Listening 2019 promotion for young adults offers 2 free audiobooks per weekā1 classic or non-fiction, 1 modernāas free MP3 downloads, usually available worldwide (some titles are subject to geo-restrictions, and you can see the planned release schedule here).
This week's two selected titles, which have a theme of coping with the effects of disasters both natural and otherwise, available until 7am Eastern Time on May 23rd, are as follows:
Spill by Leigh Fondakowski, a live perfomance recording of a documentary-styled theatre play based on the events of British Petroleum's 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, told via dramatized interviews, court proceedings, and emotional experiences of the rig workers and their families in the aftermath; read by a full cast, from L. A. Theatre Works, available worldwide
Meet the Sky by McCall Hoyle, a New Adult f/m contemporary romance novel starring an emotionally-withdrawn young woman traumatized by recent accidents and misfortunes, who gets separated from her family during a hurricane evacuation off the coast of North Carolina, and finds herself trapped on her home island and struggling to survive and learn to live fully again with the help of a former high school crush who broke her heart and has suffered heartbreaks of his own; read by actress Morgan Fairbanks, from Blink, available worldwide
Offered as DRM-free MP3s through 7am Eastern Time on May 23rd, available in selected countries worldwide (requires installing Overdrive Media console software on your PC, Mac, Android, or iDevice, and you need to finish downloading before the time limit).
It all started with the accident. The one that caused Sophieās dad to walk out of her life. The one that left Sophieās older sister, Meredith, barely able to walk at all.
With nothing but pain in her past, all Sophie wants is to plan for the futureākeep the family business running, get accepted to veterinary school, and protect her mom and sister from another disaster. But when a hurricane forms off the coast of North Carolinaās Outer Banks and heads right toward their island, Sophie realizes nature is one thing she canāt control.
After she gets separated from her family during the evacuation, Sophie finds herself trapped on the island with the last person sheād have chosenāthe reckless and wild Finn Sanders, who broke her heart freshman year. As they struggle to find safety, Sophie learns that Finn has suffered his own heartbreak; but instead of playing it safe, Finnās become the kind of guy who goes surfing in the eye of the hurricane. He may be the perfect person to remind Sophie how to embrace life again, but only if their newfound friendship can survive the storm.
Emilie Day believes in playing it safe: sheās homeschooled, her best friend is her seizure dog, and sheās probably the only girl on the Outer Banks of North Carolina who canāt swim.
Then Emilieās mom enrolls her in public school, and Emilie goes from studying at home in her pjās to halls full of strangers. To makeā¦
