Millie

A street dog named Mil­lie and a young girl who are both deal­ing with aban­don­ment issues must give trust and belong­ing a sec­ond chance.

​Mil­lie is a feisty bor­der ter­ri­er who lives on the streets and has a keen sense for find­ing scraps of food, usu­al­ly in the shad­ows or the cov­er of dark­ness. She pro­tects her­self with a shield of what is per­ceived by many as aggression–barking and snarling–when in real­i­ty, Mil­lie is just plain scared.

Turned over to ani­mal con­trol after a recent run-in with the dog­catch­er, Mil­lie is res­cued by a spe­cial teacher who also reha­bil­i­tates and rehomes dogs. It’s a win-win. Togeth­er, the dogs and her stu­dents learn emo­tion­al resilience, anger man­age­ment, and oth­er cop­ing skills.

When one of the stu­dents, a strug­gling read­er named Tori, shows a nat­ur­al gift for dog train­ing and work­ing with fear­ful dogs, Mil­lie is tem­porar­i­ly placed in her care. Tori may be young, but she knows a thing or two about anger, fear, and aban­don­ment after her moth­er could no longer care for her and she was placed in kin­ship care with her grand­fa­ther. Mil­lie won­ders if she’s final­ly found her per­son and begins to let down her emo­tion­al guard. But when trust and belong­ing are chal­lenged, Mil­lie reverts to old habits–fleeing, hid­ing, and growl­ing. Will she end up back on the streets? Or can Mil­lie and Tori embrace their train­ing, trust in each oth­er, and find a for­ev­er home together?

Mille is an empa­thy-build­ing nov­el for young read­ers who love dogs and is a ten­der por­tray­al of the impor­tance of emo­tion­al safe­ty and what it means to tru­ly belong.