Book Summaries

Puppy with a Purpose

In the real world, mice, cats, and dogs do not live in harmony.  However, there’s a puppy that is determined to change all of that.
     In the real world, prejudice exists among social classes of people.  However, there’s a young boy who wishes it were different.
     Innocence may be the key to unlocking these injustices.  However, will it be enough?
    Puppy With A Purpose (31,500 words) takes place in an upper-middle class neighborhood where a lower-middle class family has recently moved.  The boy from the new family is teased at school for being average, which is below average according to their scale.  Early in the story he is approached by an old man, who gives him a “special” puppy, or so the old man says.
     The puppy, Fluffy, knows he is special but does not know exactly why.  Fluffy is selected by the leader of the mice to be a spokesman to speak to the leaders of the dogs and cats in order to call a truce.  Fluffy then believes his whole purpose in life is to bring peace to the feuding mice, cats, and dogs.
     The well-developed characters are witty, funny, and heartwarming.  They’ll have the reader laughing, crying, and wanting more.
     The story switches back and forth from the community of people to the community of animals.  There are two separate story lines that intertwine near the highly emotional conclusion.

Thurman Thinks Thrice

Thurman, a fifth grade boy,  is a daydreamer.  He tends to find himself daydreaming all the time.  He's a good boy, however.  He doesn't always want to be good, but because he's so cautious, he tends to stay out of trouble.  Thurman gets mischievous ideas all the time, but when he thinks about what could go wrong, he usually decides not to do it, that is, if he can come up with at least three bad consequences as a result of his actions.  Will Thurman ever get to do the wrong thing?  The bully of the story, Wilson, "The Killer" Myers doesn't help matters.

Nature Boy

Jason, an eleven-year-old boy, stumbles into some trouble one day, and as a result, he gains some special powers.  One of these powers is the ability to heal.  Jason cares about all living things so it's easy for him to want to heal them.  But what if his special powers were killing him, and he knew about it?  Would he stop using them?  How does he tell his little sister he doesn't want to be a super hero?  Will he risk his life in order to save the lives of complete strangers, people, in fact, who might be robbers and kidnappers?