Birdie for Now (Orca Young Reader) - Softcover

"A satisfying and heartwarming story."--School Library Journal (12/01/2003)

"The emphasis that this book puts on relationships and their development makes it an outstanding read."--CM Magazine (05/24/2002)

"This is an enjoyable book."--Resource Links (09/01/2002)

"Little certainly knows what interests kids and how to tell a satisfying story."--Booklist (11/01/2002)

"Fast-paced action and lively dialogue transport readers through conflict, challenge, suspense, and satisfactory resolution."--Quill & Quire (06/01/2002)

"In no time the reader is launched into a wonderful story of the hero-s yearning for a dog."--St. Catharine's Standard (04/20/2002)

One minute she was not there and the next she had dashed in among them, her dangling leash sailing through the air after her. Her silky coat rippled in the breeze and she had incredible ears, black and tall, shaped like butterfly wings. Her feathery tail curled up over her back one minute, streamed out behind her the next and, a second later, tucked itself out of sight between her legs. To Dickon, that tail shouted, "I want to befriends ... I'm running away ... I'm afraid." He understood the little dog completely. He, too, had felt confused and desperate. Dickon wasn't happy in his old home or his old school. He hopes that in his new neighborhood he will meet children who never knew his old, hyper self, who will like him for who he is now. And he hopes for a dog of his own. Dickon's mother calls him Birdie. She feeds him milk from a teddy bear mug. She worries if he's out of her sight for a moment and she knows how filthy and vicious dogs can be. Dickon is delighted to discover that the Humane Society is right on the other side of the fence behind the new house, but only by disobeying his mother will he ever get close to a real dog.