The Green Dog: A Mostly True Story [Paperback]

Suzanne Fisher Staples (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

A Newbery Honor-winning Author

The summer after fourth grade, a lonely girl wants just one thing: a dog. She tries everything to convince her parents to let her have one, but nothing works. She is sure that she will spend another whole summer alone - dogless and friendless - with no one to share her adventures. Just when things look bleakest, a charming dog finds her. "Jeff" works his magic on everyone in the house and becomes part of the family, but it's soon evident that he has a nose for trouble.

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-6-In the beginning, Jeff is just an imaginary dog, 10-year-old Suzanne's loyal companion, the dog she has wanted all her life but can't have because of her brother's allergies. Then one day, a black-and-tan dog, the real Jeff, appears, wandering on the median strip of the highway near her home. Suzanne recognizes him immediately and despairs when her father refuses to stop the car and rescue him. Yet miracles do happen, and the animal survives, only to appear later on the family's doorstep. With a great deal of persuasion, Suzanne convinces her parents that this is the perfect dog, her dog, and she is allowed to keep him on a trial basis. What follows is a perfectly riotous summer with Jeff getting into laugh-aloud trouble at every turn. But summers, even the best of them, end, and this perfect relationship must come to a bittersweet ending as well. In this "mostly true" story, Staples has perfectly captured the feel of a Pennsylvania lakeside summer in the late 1950s. Her writing is rich and descriptive, yet clear and simple. Her characters are all familiar-the lonely, imaginative child, not quite ready to grow up and longing for a perfect friend; the whiny but helpful younger sister; the exasperated and yet sympathetic mother; the lovable and incorrigible dog-but Staples turns each one into a perfectly rounded individual, a person (or dog) readers could easily know. Like Henry and Mudge, the Blossoms and Mud, Opal and Winn-Dixie, Suzanne and Jeff are sure to become favorites with readers of all ages.
Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. In this fictionalized memoir, Staples remembers a blissful summer before fifth grade, when the dog of her dreams miraculously appears at her family's door. "I need a dog because I don't have any real friends," says young Suzanne, a loner who prefers solitary adventures in the woods to the company of other kids. When Jeff, a scruffy mutt the family spotted at the roadside, arrives at the Fishers' door, it seems to be fate. For the rest of the summer, Suzanne roams happily with Jeff, growing closer to her sister and neighborhood kids along the way. Unfortunately, Jeff's comic accidents and escapes prove too difficult to manage, and Suzanne's parents send Jeff to a local farm. The first-person narrative is filled with rich, poetic vocabulary and nostalgic details that belong more to an adult's memories than to a child's viewpoint. But Staples' beautiful words and images capture summer's delicious freedom, and readers will connect with daydreaming, independent Suzanne, who notices everything, fears growing up, and loves her pet with a pure intensity that her parents will never understand. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; First Thus edition (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060760451
• ISBN-13: 978-0060760458
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,775,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Afterschool Book Bunch reviews Green Dog, April 10, 2004

By 

Patti (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Green Dog: A Mostly True Story (Hardcover)

Our afterschool Book Club (4th & 5th graders) read the book Green Dog during the month of March. Some gave it 5 stars, some three so we compromised at 4 stars!! See what they had to say about it:
*Lots of Discription from Suzzanne Fisher Stapples! Emily,the horselover!
*I think it was interesting. Suzzanne and I have a lot in common. Jeff is a very funny charactar. I would recommend this book to anybody who loves dogs or wants a dog or wants to know what some dogs can do. Maria
*I give it three stars. I think it should be three stars because it is great and sometimes it was kind of good. Shad
*3 stars O.K. Isaac
*I gave this book three stars. I think this book was a good book but there were a few parts I didn't like. Suzanne and I have alot in common; like she day dreams alot - and so do I. I liked the expressions Suzzanne used. Over all a great book! Karen
*It was a very good book. Kelly
*Even though I didn't get it finished, I liked what I read. Emily
*I had a hard time getting into the story, so I didn't finish it. But after hearing the others share, I wish I had read it. Lauren
*I think this book was touching, sad, and true hearted. I know it was a "Mostly Ture Story" but I think it may have been too sad. At first I did not understand what "the farm" was. I thought it meant a place where they put dogs to sleep. I'm glad it was not. I would recommend this book to anyone who can accept sad stories about animals. Leah

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Green Dog, May 8, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Green Dog: A Mostly True Story (Paperback)

This story takes place in present time. It is about a girl named Suzanne who wants the "perfect dog." She lives in the outer part of the suburbs, in a house with her parents and her brother and sister. Her brother is allergic to dogs, so her dad keeps saying no, that she can't have a dog. Then one day, the "perfect dog" runs up to her and follows her home. She begs her dad to let her keep him. He keeps saying no. She names the dog Jeff. Her dad says that she can keep the dog until they find the owner. They put up posters about the dog. Suzanne and Jeff are best friends; they go fishing together, and go on walks together. They spend a lot of time together all summer. When its time for Suzanne to go back to school at the end of the summer, Jeff gets very lonely. Then her dad gets a call from some people that live on a farm, and they say that Jeff is their dog, but her dad did not tell Suzanne. One day when she comes home from school, Jeff is gone. She finds out her dad took Jeff back to the farm where he belongs. She becomes very angry and sad and runs away into the woods. She lays on the ground and cries until she feels rain on her back. Then she decided to go home. The next day her mom calls the doctor, but he says that Suzanne is not sick, just sad. After a while Suzanne realizes that Jeff is in a better place where he can run around outside, instead of being stuck inside her house. She is happy that he is happy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "A mostly true story", January 21, 2006

By 

Megan Mccomber "book maven" (Venice, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Green Dog: A Mostly True Story (Hardcover)

In the beginning, Jeff is just an imaginary dog...something 10 year-old Suzanne invents in her daydreams. Her brother's allergies get in the way between Suzanne and her hopes of a REAL dog. One who shares her "interests"(in other words, critter catching, fishing, swimming and just hanging out in the forest by the lake). Her mother desperately tries to find Suzanne friends, thinking her daughter is too absorbed in her daydreams and needs companionsip. She sets up play dates with local children for Suzanne, but nothing seems to work. Suzanne still wants a dog and insists she "needs" one. One day, while traveling to her father's new company building, she spots the real "Jeff" ; a black and tan dog wandering on the median strip on a highway close to her house. She is thrilled, and asks her parents to take Jeff home with them. After all, she reasons, he could get hit by a car. Her father refuses, and although her mother doens't agree, she sides with Suzanne's father, grounding Suzanne's hopes into the dirt. But when the family returns to their home, they find "Jeff", sleeping on the doorsteps. Insisting that it is fate, Suzanne and her siblings take up the plea to keep the dog on a trial basis. What Suzanne doesn't know, is that she's in for the summer of her life, filled with joys, discoveries, friendship and eventually, heartbreak.

*****| This is a great book. Although the characters are all too familiar and so is the plot(gawky, unconfident kid finds herself in dog), it's a simple story that should be given a chance. I enjoyed it. Check it out.