A Different Dog

Paul Jennings, Geoff Kelly

From Shelf: Paul Jennings

A highly original, gripping and surprising story of a boy who can't speak, a dog, and a daring rescue. Beautifully crafted, this story will draw the most reluctant of readers towards the rewarding, quirky, twist of its ending.

The child narrator of A Different Dog can't speak - we assume it is from a disability or a reaction to a trauma in his past. He is teased by the other kids and is a loner. On a cold winter's day, when everyone is participating in a fun run on the mountain, our narrator finds himself alone at the scene of a car accident where the driver has died. But there is a little dog in the car... What follows is a moving story of survival and redemption (and somehow humour in the midst of all that), all told in a 96-page novella.