Dingo [Hardcover]

Charles de Lint (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2008

High school senior Miguel’s life is turned upside down when he meets new girl Lainey, whose family has just moved from Australia. With her tumbled red-gold hair, her instant understanding of who he is, and her unusual dog—a real Australian dingo—she’s unforgettable. And, as he quickly learns, she is on the run from an ancient bargain made by her ancestors. There’s no question that Miguel will do whatever he can to help her—but what price will each of them have to pay? Dingo is quintessential Charles de Lint, set close to his beloved, invented city of Newford—a mixture of darkness and hope, humor and mystery, and the friendship within love.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up—De Lint ingeniously incorporates Aboriginal mythology into an intriguing story. Miguel, 17, is minding his dad's funky comics and record store in a small resort community when a girl dashes in with her dog to escape the town bully. Miguel feels an immediate connection to her, but there is something strange about her dog. Gradually, he discovers that Lainey is a shape-changer, a magical creature from Australia's Aboriginal past, and the dog—really a dingo—is actually her twin sister. The girls are hiding from their father, who wants to sacrifice Lainey to the powerful Aboriginal spirit Warrigal, the original clan leader, who is trapped in a tree. Suddenly Miguel is catapulted into a rain forest fantasy world complete with a talking cautionary turkey, haunted ancestral bones, and mysterious spirits. Fantasy lovers will enjoy this tale of an initially clueless protagonist thrust into a dangerous situation where he's expected to become an instant hero. A somewhat unnecessary subplot involves the town bully, who actually has a heart of gold and a tender artistic side, and is drawn into the adventure when he falls for Lainey's twin. Still, the juxtaposition of contemporary teen life with fantasy is well done. Readers might be interested enough to investigate more about the complicated Aboriginal Dreamtime of Australia and its early clan spirits and creation myths.—Quinby Frank, Green Acres School, Rockville, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Seventeen-year-old Miguel is drawn to beautiful Lainey from the moment she and her dog appear outside his dad’s comics and music store. He soon learns that this Australian teenager and her identical twin are shape-shifters, sometimes appearing as young women and sometimes as dingoes (the ancestors of all dog breeds), but that doesn’t change his sudden, deep affection for her. Meanwhile, Miguel’s nemesis, Johnny, troubled and a troublemaker, has fallen in love with Lainey’s sister, Em. Together, the four venture into the dreamworld to challenge the power threatening the twins. Canadian fantasy writer de Lint draws from Australian lore to create otherworldly elements in the novel, making smooth transitions from everyday settings to altered realities within Miguel’s accessible first-person narrative. The occasional use of coarse (though appropriate to the characters) language may keep the book out of some middle-school libraries, but with its appealing jacket art, this tautly written, imaginative fantasy will find its audience. Grades 7-10. --Carolyn Phelan

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Firebird; First Edition edition (March 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142408166
• ISBN-13: 978-0142408162
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #803,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles de Lint and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I expected better, August 14, 2008

By 

Ms Judy (Quinns Rocks, Western Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dingo (Hardcover)

Dingo started out ok; I thought it was going to be the typical deLint, set in a music/bookstore. But once the supposed Australian mythology came in, it just fell to pieces for me. deLint knows enough about Amerind mythology to know that symbols don't transfer neatly from one tribal/ethnic background to another, so why didn't he have an Australian (or an American who has lived more of her life in Australia than in the US, like me) give him some advice. There's a lot that can be made of Australian Indigenous mythology, without stepping on Secret Mens/Women's Business, but just mixing them all up, as he tries to do in Dingo, doesn't work for me.

The two twins can't behave that differently because each was present when the other interacted with Miguel. The dog he described wasn't even a dingo. They're skinny, underfed-looking dogs. They don't "look" powerful, even though they are.

deLint has done so many things so well that I'll read anything he writes, and always come back for more, but what a disappointment this was to me. A little research would have made it much more credible.

Ms Judy

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Wonderful tale, April 5, 2008

By 

RealDeal "novgirl" (Vallejo, California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dingo (Hardcover)

Once again another wonderfully written story by Charles De Lint. I have to say I'm never disappointed when I read any of his books and I've been reading them for years. It doesn't matter if they were written for kids or adults they're all great. I recommend him to everyone, once you start you can't stop. The characters are just wonderful, you fall in love the moment you meet them, the locations are magic. I love how he describes and manages the meld the cross over from fantasy to reality, the blend is perfect, seamless. You don't know where one begins and the other ends. I catch myself wondering more about the things I encounter and can't explain and think, if only... You won't be disappointed with any of his books, you'll enjoy them for a long time.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars These dingoes have no bite, November 7, 2008

By 

La Coccinelle - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dingo (Hardcover)

I am a fan of many of Charles de Lint's books, and when I picked up this one, I was hoping for another good young adult fantasy along the lines of "The Blue Girl". However, "Dingo" fell far short of my expectations.

The writing felt flat to me. I never really got a feel for who the characters were. This could be due to the fact that they all spoke the same way, using the same words, and that the teenagers didn't really speak like teenagers. Without the speech attributions, it would be difficult to tell the difference between Miguel, his father, Lainey, Em, Johnny, or even the villain. A few Aussie slang words did little to help the reader differentiate between the characters; without them, the speech patterns were basically the same.

At times, I even wondered if I was reading a book for much younger readers... but with the addition of a few choice swear words from the book's quasi-villain, Johnny Ward, that theory was soon quashed. Miguel's comment about homeschooling and evolution further showed that de Lint really doesn't know much about today's young people.

There were also a number of editing problems. Just off the top of my head, I can recall inconsistent capitalization, inconsistent names, an extra unnecessary pronoun, and a missing paragraph break. I expect more from the books I read. Sadly, it seems today's publishers do not.

Basically, "Dingo" follows the pattern of many of de Lint's novels: protagonists meet person(s) with strange qualities, get sucked into world of mythical creatures/dreams/spirits, and find their way out again. But "Dingo" didn't seem original or exciting enough to really stand on its own as a good example of de Lint's work. I found the ending to be especially disappointing, as the protagonist didn't really solve anything (that was left to another character).

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, even if they are a de Lint fan. "The Blue Girl" is a much better introduction to de Lint's work, especially for younger readers.