Thirteen-year-old Abby lives in an unhappy home in the Sierra Nevada foothills. One day, Abby rescues a litter of seven puppies abandoned for dead and leaves them in an abandoned cabin, promising to return the next day. When grieving widower Elliot retreats to the hunting cabin he last visited years ago, he discovers seven puppies and one determined girl with an indomitable heart. As the two become friends, Abby imagines how much better life would be if her mother were married to Elliot instead of her father. Read Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde. That’s why we asked you what animal stories we should be adding to our TBRs! They didn’t have to be about the typical dogs or cats, either. I’m always looking for a good alpaca farmer memoir or lizard-loving YA novel. Here are your recs crawling with all kinds of critters! Watership Down by Richard Adams Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey Mrs. Murphy Series by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton Mimi Lee Gets a Clue by Jennifer J. Chow Yasmin the Zookeeper by Saadia Faruq We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide Duncton Wood by William Horwood Chi’s Sweet Home series by Konami Kanata Copper by Kazu Kibuishi The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan Watchers by Dean Koontz H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil The Friend by Sigrid Nunez The Bees by Laline Paull Reynard the Fox stories Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley I Am A Cat by Natsumi Soseki Tales from Gorilla Girl and Gorilla Diaries by Ann Southcombe The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
