Orwell's Luck

by Richard Jennings
PRMS paperback 146 pages
genre: YA fantasy

I meant to blog about this before my sixth grade book club discussed it, but that didn't happen . . . and as we were discussing, I realized that we never learn the protagonist's name! In fact, some of the readers assumed it was a guy and others (including me) assumed it was a girl. We decided that there are NO named characters other than the rabbit Orwell. (Stubborn me wants to re-read it and make SURE no other humans are named. There is grandma, mom, dad, the tousle-haired boy, the people across the street, etc. And there is Orwell.

Orwell is a special rabbit who shows up on top of the morning paper one day. Unable to move his hind quarters, our protagonist brings him indoors and tends to him. Unusual messages start showing up in the horoscope . . . is Orwell trying to tell her something? Is he bringing her luck?

My favorite passage is on pages 89-92 titled "The meaning of money." The protagonist is trying to see things in a "different light" per instructions from Orwell. She thinks about what she has rather than just what she wishes she had. My book club liked this book, so we'll probably keep it in the 6th grade rotation.

What a Difference a Dog Makes: big lessons on life, love and healing from a small pooch

by Dana Jennings
Hennepin County library audioCDs 3 discs
read by the author
genre: memoir, pets, cancer

Quick read. I mostly liked it. It was irritating when he practically deified dogs . . . they're just dogs, not mystic entities. I liked where he talked about dogs living in the "now" - that's definitely a wonderful trait!

Too distracted right now to write . . . too many people asking me questions and needing things. Tiring day. I appreciate the author's candidness about his prostate cancer and how it affected him. I was surprised that he included so little about his wife in this book.