Quotable Quotes (too many to include all of them): "...and you think you're alone, just for a few sleepy blinks, but then you realize that your mom is there, and she's looking at you, and she loves you, and you understand that you were never really alone at all? That's what it feels like."
"He knew that sometimes just waiting and listening is the best kind of helping you can do."
"Because promises are funny things. They stay the same, even when everything around them changes. And when that happens, sometimes they get forgotten. And a forgotten promise isn't exactly the same thing as a broken promise."
"Our souls don't just stay with us, _______. They live in the ones we love, too. And they live in the ones who love us."
"Here's what I don't get: how the world can be so dark when there are hearts as heroic and souls as bright as Brodie's in it."
As I type the above quotes, I have tears rolling down my cheeks. This book, this story, this experience...I didn't want it to end. When Brodie finds himself in the afterlife, he can only think of one thing--getting back to the boy he left behind. Through Brodie's courage, love, and devotion, we witness a truly "good dog" trying to return to earth to rescue his boy from danger. As he makes his way back, he is joined by Tuck, a dog that himself was never able to move on, and Patsy, a cat with a dark secret. These three will need to trust, sacrifice, and persevere to overcome what lies in their path.
If he is reading this blog, Dan Gemeinhart may be a little tired of me gushing about him this year; however, since reading Some Kind of Courage to them during the fall, my students have been obsessed with everything he has ever written . They have been counting down the days until the release of Good Dog and have even mapped out our read alouds until the end of the year to make sure we read it--The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown, The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole by Michelle Cuevas, and Good Dog. I am not at all sure that I can read this book aloud to them--I literally sat at my son's wrestling tournament today and sobbed as I finished the story!
Thank you once again, Dan Gemeinhart, for your wonderful storytelling. You are a master of words, and it is my honor to share your work with my students. Now, will someone please pass me the tissues???
