Customer Reviews

Lad of Sunnybank (Thorndike Classics)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I first read Lad: a Dog, I fell in love with it. However, I had no idea there were more books. So when my Grandfather handed my sister a book, and she took one look at it and threw it over her shoulder, and I picked it up, I was both overjoyed and scandalized. Overjoyed because the inside cover picture featured an enormous white collie with tiny white paws. Scandalized because my sister dismissed it so quickly. As I read about the further adventures of Lad, Wolf, and Lady, I once again travelled to Sunnybank in spirit. In these stories, Lad becomes chums with a raccoon names Ramsey, a fox named Aesop, and a monkey named Darwin. He makes a dog lover out of a dog hater by "saving" her. He performs countless feats and has many, many adventures and misadventures. This book is equally lovable to Lad: A Dog. Any person who can read-young or old, dog-lover or dog-hater, should read this and fall in love with Lad.

Sitting on the bookshelf in my four-year old daughter's room is a copy of this book, waiting for the day when she is ready to have books read to her that don't have pictures. I loved all Terhune's books as a child and have tried to pick up hardcover editions when and where I can. Luckily, I managed to order this shortly after my first's daughter's birth in anticipation of the day when I could introduce her to Lad and the other dogs of Sunnybank. I have no doubt she will love all theses stories as I did.

Lad was a real collie who belonged to the author in the early part of the twentieth century. He was not Terhune's only dog, but he is the best known and best loved of all of them. And Terhune while wrote many tales for magazines of most of his dogs, Lad was always a favorite of the reading public. The stories were so popular that many eventually were collected into volumes such as this one.

Amazingly, Lad apparently lived less than ten years but packed a lot of living into that life. It is my understanding that a part of Sunnybank (which was Terhune's home) has been preserved to this day and it has the graves of Lad and other of the Sunnybank dogs there.

This book is essentially the further adventures of Lad, following up the success of "Lad: a Dog." These stories are wonderfully told (even though Terhune thought himself a lousy writer) and are all the more compelling in that they are true. Truly Great reading for animal lovers of all ages.

As are most Albert Payson Terhune books, this one is wonderful for readers of all ages! Laugh, cry and grow with these wonderful Collie dogs.

As the title says, this book is great like all Albert Payson Terhune's Lad books are. I can admit that I got a little burnt out hearing lines repeated (you'll get it if you remember great books like me and if you remember the previous books) and reading about Lad saving things one story after another after another, but it is great all the same.

It's not as good as LAD: A DOG, but I've owned a Sunnybank descendant, and it's whole lot better than most!