Straydog [Library Binding]

Kathe Koja (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2008

A powerful debut novel

A female collie mix, so beautiful, all gold and white and dirty; she’s in the last cage on the aisle, curled up quiet, watching everything – but when I get too close she goes completely crazy, biting at the bars, herself, anything in reach, until I back off and away. Her growl’s like ripping metal, jagged, dangerous, and strong . . . Don’t mess with me, that growl says. I may be in a cage but I can still bite.

Rachel is happiest when she’s volunteering at the animal shelter, especially after she meets the feral collie she names Grrl: they’re both angry and alone. When a teacher encourages her to write about the dog, Rachel finds another outlet for her pain and frustration. Writing about Grrl is easy. But teaching Grrl to trust her is a much tougher task. And when Griffin, the new boy in school, devises a plan to bring Grrl home, Rachel finds that the dog isn’t the only one who must learn to trust.

Kathe Koja offers a raw and emotional tale about a girl who risks breaking out of her own cage to find the help she needs.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"What do you do when you're too smart for the freaks, but too much of a freak for the smart kids?" This is the question Rachel asks herself daily as she walks down the halls of her high school observing the strange rituals of the "TV Girls," "People from Planet Mensa," and the "Net Jockeys." Rachel couldn't care less that she doesn't fit in. As far as she's concerned, the only things she needs to survive are her volunteer work at the local animal shelter and her writing. Until she meets the feral collie she christens Grrl. To others at the shelter, Grrl seems completely untamable. But Rachel sees her own fury and frustration mirrored in the dog's deep brown eyes, and she is determined to domesticate Grrl. Inspired by the outlaw dog, Rachel's writing takes off, and she is even coaxed into sharing it with "Griffin Lost Boy," another creative loner like herself. But giving her story a happy ending and providing one for Grrl in real life are two totally different things, and no matter how strong Rachel thinks she is, she may not be strong enough to handle the truth about Grrl.

Weighing in at just over one hundred pages, this slim tome nevertheless packs a powerful emotional wallop. While angry, abused Grrl may seem like an obvious metaphor for the angry adolescent experience, author Kathe Koja's short, choppy sentences where both girl and Grrl snarl and snap at the world are well executed and inventive. Take this Straydog home from the pound immediately. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Koja (Extremities), the author of novels for adults, enters the YA realm with a solid if sometimes familiar tale of a high school misfit: "What do you do when you're too smart for the freaks, but too much of a freak for the smart kids? when there's no table in the lunchroom for the ones like you?" For Rachel, the answer is to wear her anger on her sleeve anger at her parents, at her shallow classmates, and at a world whose expectations seem so superficial and to isolate herself. She takes solace in her writing and in her volunteer job at an animal shelter, where she feels an instant kinship with a feral collie ("Why should I trade who I am for who they want me to be? So they can pat me on the head and put me in the normal-girl box? I'd rather be alone. I'd rather be a wild dog than jammed in someone's cage"). She hatches ill-advised plans to save the dog, whom she makes into the narrator of her essay-in-progress, "straydog" (passages are strategically interspersed). A number of elements are well-worn: the encouraging English teacher; the new boy who is a loner yet seems remarkably adept socially; the writing contest that validates Rachel's talent. Yet the protagonist, for all her alienation, proves both compelling and sympathetic. In telling her story, Koja plumbs not only Rachel's dark and darkly funny psyche, but also what it means to be human and to make connections of love and trust. Ages 12-up. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 112 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439516049
• ISBN-13: 978-1439516041
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,231,134 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 A very fine read for young adults and those older., August 5, 2004

By 

Alexiel (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Straydog (Hardcover)

You know, I'm not a big fan of Kathe Koja, despite having read most of her works. Her subject matter and writing style usually rub me the wrong way, like in "Skin" and "Strange Angels," too books I very much disliked. However, "Straydog" is a much stronger and different work.

Koja eschews her usual over-the-top melodrama for a more restrained tale that resonates very strongly in truth. 'Straydog" is about a very cynical high school girl named Rachel who doesn't like much in life besides taking care of animals and writing. She isn't full of self-pity though, she's a sharply sarcastic and biting one, full of life. She meets a dog who animal officials at the shelter she works at declare is a lost cause, much too violent, but she is determined to rehabilitate it and upon the encouragement of her teacher, decides to write about the process through the dog's point of view. She also meets an outsider, a boy named Griffin, who helps her in this task.

The whole "story within a story" aspect of this slim book works very well, and each level is written smartly and with a minimum of flashy, unnecessary pretenses by Koja. There are very smart viewpoint and tone changes from the book Koja is writing to when it becomes the passages that Koja is writing that Rachel is writing through the view of the dog. A very clean transition that makes the whole thing believable.

To sum up my feelings, this book doesn't really hit any of the false notes that many of Koja's other works do, and I think it has something pretty useful to impart to all of its readers, not always the same for each reader. I would definitely recommend this book, it's a quick and smart read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly different!, July 22, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Straydog (Mass Market Paperback)

This is my absolute favorite book. Rachel is most definitely not one of those dry protagonists with no emotions or opinions, and this novel is not the typical animal rescue book, in which a girl finds a distrusting stray, takes it home, and in two weeks has trained it perfectly. It is sad, but has a powerful message and was written skillfully so that the reader goes through all the thoughts and emotions that Rachel has. This a great read for dog lovers, but also people who have yet to learn that special bond that never dies in Rachel.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stray dog, February 14, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Straydog (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is about a girl named Rachel and she volunteers

At an animal shelter. She meets a dog and she calls it Grr. She is sad and she doesn't have many friends so that's when she starts working at the dog pound.

She likes it and she plays with it. The next day she goes down there she helps with what she has to do and when she gets finished she gets to play with the dogs and she picks `grr'