If you have ever loved a dog, Gary Paulsen’s My Life inDog Years will make you cry. If, like me, you’ve refused to buy your two
young daughters a dog until they are older, with the secret hope that they’ll
forget about the whole thing eventually, this book will keep you awake nights,
whispering in your ear that you are a terrible father.
Dogs helped shepherd Gary Paulsen through a rough and
isolating childhood, and accompanied him in his adventures as an extreme
outdoorsman. In this memoir, each chapter tells the story of a different part
of Paulsen’s life and the close relationship he held with a dog that helped him
through.
When Paulsen was a teenager, he labored on a farm to feed
and clothe himself, and took an interest in a border collie who worked the farm
with an intelligence and diligence that rivaled that of the best farmhand. In
what was one of my favorite chapters in the book, Paulsen recounts a day when,
his field work was rained out, he observed the dog herding cattle, inspecting
fences, and guarding small children from the dangers of a farmyard.
The book is a page turner and fascinating, which
is to say that it is probably a great choice for struggling readers, since the
text is accessible to a student as young as a 4th grader but would
captivate an older secondary student.
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