books, movies, music & more... OUR FAVORITE DOG-THEMED BOOKS FOR WINTER READING
Good Dogs Don’t Make It To The South Pole by Hans-Olav Thyvold HarperCollins, 2020 Of course, this is fiction. The story is told through the eyes of “a grumpy yet lovable mutt.” After his human, Major Thorkildsen, dies, Tassen and Mrs. Thorkildsen are left alone. They talk to one another.
“Mrs. Thorkildsen
suffers from loneliness,” says Tassen, Border Collie. “It’s a chronic ail- ment that she bears silently. I’m so lonely, she says. It makes me feel terrible because I don’t feel lonely. I have Mrs. Thorkildsen, and that’s more than enough for me. Mrs. Thorkildsen, on the other hand, only has me, and that’s obviously not enough for her.” No one can hear
If a dog is happy, everything is fine. Antarctic Proverb
the dog talking except Mrs. Thorkildsen, who, Tassen says, is her best in
the kitchen. “That’s where she kneads and cooks and chops and fries happiness out of
sorrow and simple ingredients,”Tassen observes. While Tassen chomps up some extra treats, Mrs. Thorkildsen downs more wine. The two find a purpose during their trips to the library, as
Mrs. Thorkildsen is moved to research Roald Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole led by a pack of sled dogs. Author Thyvold’s knowledge of the history and his descriptions bring a rich dimension to the novel. Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole five weeks
ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott. The defining factor between the two expeditions was the complete and total use of dogs by Amundsen. However, much to our protagonists’ surprise and disappointment, we learn the cold hard truth of Amundsen’s treatment of the dogs. It was survival of the fittest, and Amundsen won the challenge, but never emotionally recov- ered from the guilt, especially as he grew older. With every new discovery that Mrs. Thorkildsen reveals to
Tassen, he has his own pragmatic canine opinion to add to the conversation. Their comfortable routine is interrupted by Mrs.
56 THE NEW BARKER
Thorkildsen’s son and daughter-in-law. Do they want to help her or do they just want to take her home for themselves? What will become of Tassen if Mrs. Thorkildsen ends up in a nursing home, he shudders? “The best thing you can aspire to in this world is company,”
Tassen says. “Mrs. Thorkildsen had me to keep her company. And I had her. That’s what we had in common, she and me, what bound us together. We were company.” Hans-Olav Thyvold takes great care
Hans-Olav Thyvold and his dog Ruffen.
in descriptions of things such as the concentrated flavors of coffee, venison, and hard liquor. His writing of Tassen’s olfactory expertise provides some of the most funny and often poignant pas- sages. When Mrs. Thorkildsen and Tassen visit Amundsen’s polar ship, the Fram, in a museum, Tassen observes: “You can overhaul a vessel from keel to mast, store it indoors, and let tourists
step all over it for nearly a hundred years, but you’ll never get rid of the smell. The polar ship Fram lay there resting in its giant house, warm and plump and dry, while she oozed fear and resentment.” Good Dogs Don’t Make It To The South Pole is a darkly comedic
portrayal of aging and death. Told through a dog’s friendship with an elderly woman, it proves that sometimes a dog’s story is the most human of all.
U
The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart Scholastic Press, 2015 Turning one last dream into a reality is all Mark is focused on accomplishing. He runs away from home with his camera, his notebook and Beau, his dog. Like most faithful dogs, Beau will go to the ends of the earth for his young boy, who has terminal cancer. Mark is tired of being sick and heads out to climb Mount
Ranier, a formidable and dangerous journey under the best cir- cumstances for the healthiest of mountain climbers. While Mark’s family frantically looks for clues, Jessie, his best
friend, believes she knows the truth. She struggles with the knowledge that could possibly help his parents find him. Written in first person by Mark as events unfold, every other chapter is written from Jessie’s perspective. Often in peril throughout their journey, death seems just
around the corner for Mark and Beau. But, this is not a story about cancer or death. “It’s a book about courage and loyalty,”said the author, Dan Gemeinhart. “It is also about choices.”
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