Monday, April 28, 2014

How Smudge Came by Nan Gregory, Illustrated by Ron Lightburn


Summary:
Cindy is developmentally challenged and no pets are allowed in the home where she lives, so she must hide her new-found puppy in her room until she can find someone to care for him.

My review:
This is a sweet but some what sad little story about a girl named Cindy who lives in a group home. She finds a stray puppy and sneaks it into her room. She takes the puppy with her to her job at a hospice home. The name given the puppy incidentally is cute too.
However, the puppy is soon discovered and shipped off to the SPCA. CIndy finds herself quite sad. That is all I will reveal but I will say, the book does have a happy ending. 
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The author treats the girl Cindy with respect to her challenges. I loved how it was written in the thoughts of CIndy and not the thoughts of the others that surround her. Cindy, even with her challenges, is shown to have feelings and is shown to be a productive citizen of society by making her own money while doing what she likes to do.The people she works with at the hospice center are sweet to her as well and respect her.

The book illustrates that no matter who we are or what we face, we sometimes have to overcome the things that hurt us or that we don't understand. This is especially the way of children when adults have control over their lives.

This book is geared for 2 year olds and up. I think that kids this young can grasp the idea of sadness and loss especially with an adult helping them to understand. I would not say however, that this is a book that you would want to read all the time as it is quite sad until the very end.

This book gets 4 stars.

Disclosure: I purchased a copy of this book. The review expressed here is 100% my own and may differ from yours.
~Naila Moon

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