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Maxi's Secrets: (Or, What You Can Learn from a Dog) - Softcover

Plourde, Lynn

 
9780399545689: Maxi's Secrets: (Or, What You Can Learn from a Dog)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0399545689 ISBN 13: 9780399545689
Verlag: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

When a BIG, lovable, does-it-her-way dog wiggles her way into the heart of a loudmouth pipsqueak of a boy, wonderful things happen that help him become a bigger, better person. Perfect for fans of Wonder and Because of Winn-Dixie.
 
Timminy knows that moving to a new town just in time to start middle school when you are perfect bully bait is less than ideal. But he gets a great consolation prize in Maxi—a gentle giant of a dog who the family quickly discovers is deaf. Timminy is determined to do all he can to help Maxi—after all, his parents didn't return him because he was a runt. But when the going gets rough for Timminy, who spends a little too much time getting shoved into lockers at school, Maxi ends up being the one to help him—along with their neighbor, Abby, who doesn’t let her blindness define her and bristles at Timminy’s “poor-me” attitude. It turns out there’s more to everyone than what’s on the surface, whether it comes to Abby, Maxi, or even Timminy himself.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Lynn Plourde (www.lynnplourde.com) is the author of 29 picture books, and Maxi’s Secrets is her debut middle-grade novel. A former speech-language therapist, she worked in public schools for twenty-one years. She was born and raised in Maine, where she still lives, and she loves spending time outdoors snowshoeing, walking, kayaking, and gardening.

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Chapter 1

Let’s get this part over with—it’s NO secret.
     My dog Maxi dies.
     Just like Old Yeller, Sounder, Old Dan, and Little Ann all died. Except those dogs were fiction. You cried, I cried when fake dogs died. Maxi was real.
     So real, I can still sniff and get a whiff of her stinky dog breath—even though she’s been gone for forty-one days now. Maybe it’s because I haven’t vacuumed a single strand of the white fur coat she left behind. And when your dog is a giant, that’s enough fur to cover a baby polar bear. Her dried dog slobber is everywhere too—like a hundred tattoos she branded my room with so I wouldn’t forget her
    NO WAY I’d forget her.
    I swear some nights I still hear Maxi nudging my bedroom door coming in to check on me after checking the rest of the house. With her guard duties done, she can plop down on my mattress. My mattress that’s still on the floor because she couldn’t climb up in bed with me anymore so I moved it down to her level.
    But when I wake confused and open the door to let her in, there’s just EMPTINESS. Emptiness that I rush to shut out, but I can’t. Emptiness slips under the covers with me. Emptiness is cold, not dog-warm. Emptiness is silent, not dog-snoring. Emptiness stinks worse than a dog’s breath. Emptiness stinks so bad it can suffocate you.
    But you can’t let it.
    When I start to breathe again, I realize HAVING Maxi in my life will always be a bigger deal than losing Maxi. Her tail still thumps-thumps-thumps in my heart.
    And that crazy dog taught me so much. You won’t believe all the secrets she shared with me. Plus some other secrets she helped me dig up, deeper than buried bones, inside myself. And sniff out still more secrets from others.
    Except, they’re NOT secrets anymore since I’m telling you. That’s okay cause Maxi would want you to know. She’d bark them to the world if she could.
     If she were still here.
 
SECRET #1
You can learn a lot from a dog you love.
 
 
Chapter 2
To be honest, I never dreamed of getting a dog. Maxi was a bribe from my parents.
    “We know you don’t like the idea of moving, Timminy, but Skenago is out in the country. So guess what?” My mom looked at my dad, as if they’d rehearsed this, and he chimed in with her, “You can have a dog!”
    I folded my arms. “No, thanks. I’ll just stay here in Portland, in our apartment. You two can move to Skenago and get a dog to keep you company. I’m not going.”
    Yup. Even as a fourth grader, I was lippy. That happens when you’re short—you’re always trying to find ways to sound and act BIGGER.
    My parents usually called me out for being a wise-mouth, but I knew they wouldn’t that time because they wanted me to move more than they wanted me to shut my trap.
    It worked. They won. The landlord wouldn’t take my piggybank for rent money so we all moved to the house in the country. I hated moving, although Maxi was the ultimate consolation prize. Besides, I doubt Maxi would have survived the busy streets of Portland with her disability.
     I’m not sure Maxi ever realized she had a disability—not once in her whole short life. We didn’t notice when we first got her, and by the time we figured it out, it didn’t matter.
     My parents didn’t return me to Maine Med where I was born, when they realized years later, that I took after my great-great uncle Lex and was short, really, really short—in the .001 percentile of height for kids my age (Notice I said KIDS—I’m not just short for boys my age, but girls too). Poor Great-great Uncle Lex owned a meat market and had to stand on a wooden crate to see over the counter to wait on his customers. You’ll be glad to know I’ve already crossed butcher off my future dream-jobs list.
    No, if my parents didn’t bring me back to the hospital when they found out what was wrong with me, I wouldn’t bring Maxi back to the breeder’s just because of her disability.
    Actually, the first time I met Maxi, I didn’t see anything wrong with her, and she didn’t see anything wrong with me either, I guess.
    My parents and I stepped inside the circular wire fence for a closer look at the seven pups for sale in the litter. One puppy began circling me, keeping the others away. I scooped it up—nose to snout—
and . . .
    Smooch! Slurp!
    “This is the one,” I told my parents.
     “But what about one of the boys?” Dad asked.
     “Dad, I’m your boy. Time to mix things up with a girl.”
    “Are you sure? This is the first puppy ad we’ve answered,” Mom whispered so the breeder wouldn’t hear. “And we have three more places to check. Maybe we should see those first.”
    Maxi wouldn’t stop licking me.
    “She’s crazy about me, Mom.”
    “But some of the other breeds we’re looking at are . . . different . . . they’re not quite as . . . um . . .”
    “Spit it out, Mom—BIG! The other breeds aren’t as big as Great Pyrenees. You’re worried your puppy will grow up to be bigger than your son.”
    “I was going to say white, Timminy. It’ll be hard to keep a white dog clean.”
    I made Mom a bunch of kid promises. “I’ll give her a bath twice a week. I’ll brush her teeth so you can’t tell where her white fur ends and her white teeth begin.”
    Then I really piled it on.” Puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease! You moved me to this new town where I’m all alone and have no friends. This pup is all I’ve got.”
    Dad looked at Mom. “Give it up, Lynda. You’ve already lost this one.”
    “Thanks, Dad,” I said, grateful that I didn’t have to turn on the tears. I would have if I had to.
     After they paid and we were loading Maxi (Maxi—who didn’t have the name Maxi yet, but I can’t just call her IT, can I?) into our car, Dad opened the back hatch.
    “I’ll just hold her in the backseat with me,” I said.
    “No, Timminy. She’s going back here in the crate we brought.”
    “That’s mean, Dad. Look, she’s shivering. She’s never been away from her pack before. If I hold her, she’ll know she still has a pack, just a new one.”
    Mom piped in, “But what if she does her “business’ in the car?”
    “She won’t. Let’s see if she has to go now. And if she still goes in the car, I’ll clean it up.”
    My parents looked skeptical, but didn’t say anything as I led Maxi around the...

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Verlag
Nancy Paulsen Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2017
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0399545689
ISBN 13 
9780399545689
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
272
Kontakt zum Hersteller
preigu GmbH & Co. KG
mail@preigu.de

Lengericher Landstr. 19
Osnabrück
Niedersachsen
49078
Deutschland

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