Publishers Weekly
A tail-wagging three hanky boo-hooer, this delightful fiction debut by newspaper columnist Cameron (8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter) proposes that a dog's purpose might entail being reborn several times. Told in a touching, doggy first-person, this unabashedly sentimental tale introduces Toby, who's rescued by a woman without a license for her rescue operation, so, sadly, Toby ends up euthanized. He's reborn in a puppy mill and after almost dying while left in a hot car, he's saved again by a woman, and he becomes Bailey, a beloved golden retriever, who finds happiness and many adventures. His next intense incarnation is as Ellie, a female German shepherd, a heroic search and rescue dog. But the true purpose of this dog's life doesn't become totally clear until his reincarnation as Buddy, a black Lab. A book for all age groups who admire canine courage, Cameron also successfully captures the essence of a dog's amazing capacity to love and protect. And happily, unlike Marley, this dog stays around for the long haul. (July)
From the Publisher
"You'll love this inside look at a canine.... Wilson's steady, sure voice will stay in your head as you look at your own dog.... The metaphysical ramifications may have you chasing your own tail." —-AudioFile
Library Journal
One of the toughest elements of dog books for readers and writers is that dogs have a far shorter life span than their human companions. Cameron (8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter) handles this situation by following his canine protagonist through several lifetimes. Bailey, as he is called in one incarnation, experiences the whole range of lives available to dogs in contemporary America, from puppy-mill survivor to loving family pet to police dog to stray. Through his many lives, Bailey searches for his purpose, his reason for living and living again. Bailey's courage and determination are tested as he travels towards his goal. VERDICT By turns funny, heartwarming, and touching without being overly sentimental, Cameron's novel successfully illuminates the breadth of the American dogscape.
Kirkus Reviews
From humor columnist Cameron (8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter, 2008, etc.), a first novel that follows the spiritual journey of a dog through four incarnations. "Toby" is first born in a litter of four to a mother who lives in the wild away from humans. But soon the family is captured. Although his mother wants only to escape, Toby-who understands human language as soon as he hears it-is immediately drawn to the human kindness of the woman who has made it her mission to care for strays. Unfortunately her facility is already overcrowded when a vicious new dog arrives. Injured in a fight among the dogs, Toby ends up in a pound where he is put down, but not before he's begun to wonder what his purpose in life might be. He is reborn as "Bailey," a golden retriever who becomes the beloved pet of "the boy" named Ethan. Ethan lives with his parents in town but spends summers on his grandparents' farm, where both Ethan and Bailey form a special bond with a little girl named Hannah. When Ethan is a teenager, a jealous, frankly evil schoolmate burns down Ethan's house. Bailey helps the police catch the perpetrator, but Ethan is badly injured, physically and emotionally. He and Bailey spend his senior year recuperating at his grandparents' farm as his parents' marriage disintegrates. By now Bailey has realized that his purpose is to comfort Ethan. Ethan goes off to college and eventually Bailey dies of old age to be reborn as Ellie, a female dog who becomes the star of a K-9 unit until she loses her sense of smell. Although her owners love her, she never forgets her special bond with Ethan. So when Toby/Bailey/Ellie is reborn, male again, he searches until he finds Ethan, now a lonely old man living on the family farm. Soon Ethan adopts "Buddy," who reunites Ethan with his lost love Hannah. Marley and Me combined with Tuesdays with Morrie.
