Title: The Last Dog on EarthAuthor: Daniel Ehrenhaft
Genre: Adventure,
Description: A mysterious dog disease is gripping the state of Oregon, sending people into a frenzy! Logan Moore must protect his pooch, and must find a way to return the world to how it once normally was.
Cool Stuff: This book won 3rd place in the Division II 2008 Maud Hart Lovelace Awards. It totally should've gotten first.
Rating: *****! Seriously.
Alright, so it is kind of a lame description. It's good to be back and writing again, but I am a little out of practice. But trust me, this is an awesome, AWESOME book, and trust me, (again) I know a good book when I see one. I love the word pooch.
Anyway--there are tons of good things about this book. It rates in my top 5 favorite books.
To start, this story has an excellent hook. A couple, actually. The first is a strange, life or death situation, about a dog attack on another dog. It's sad, but gripping. Then it changes to a different location, and a little insert in the form of an incident report. It's a report of another dog attack, and this brings the same creepy hook. With these two first stories, you really want to know what's happening to these dogs. Not in a bad, impatient way, but you're interested. Hooked, actually. You can learn a good thing or two or three about hooks from this author.
The first time I read this book, I got blown over by the feeling. That's why I thought it deserved the Maud hart Lovelace Award. Don't strange dog attacks sound creepy? Well, it doesn't just sound creepy, it feels creepy. The story is written with three views. One, a little she-pup in a wolf pack being overcome by a sickness. Two, a strange teenage boy who hates a lot of things. Three, an unsocial, retired professor who lives in the peace and quiet with his dog companion. With the she-pup, you feel her terror as she runs for her life from the pack, the sickness filling her senses, driving her forward. With the boy, you feel his annoyance, and you are annoyed at the same things as him. With the professor, you feel his disregard for people, and his enjoyment with his dog. As the story progresses, you feel and understand their realization of this sickness, and of the urgency and the danger.
The story is written in an appealing way as well. Among the chapters, which include the different views of the two people and animal, you have news articles, statements between different people of authority, email exchanges, interviews/news articles, so you actually get more than three views. these also show what is going on outside the world of the main character that helps bring the story to life.
Once you get this book started, you won't be able to put it down!!
