Stella

“Stel­la is a good dog, but she miss­es her old han­dler Con­nie and is hav­ing a hard time under­stand­ing where Con­nie went and why loud nois­es such as thun­der and fire­works cause her to pan­ic. Now, liv­ing with post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, Stel­la some­times does bad things that she can’t con­trol, like escap­ing from crates and dig­ging. Because of this, she’s con­vinced she’s a bad dog who can­not change. Before Stel­la made her way to live with Esper­an­za, an expert dog train­er, and her daugh­ter Cloe, she used to be a bomb-sniff­ing dog at the air­port. She blames her­self for Con­nie’s death because Stel­la was dis­tract­ed and missed the scent of an explo­sive device. Stel­la and Cloe are imme­di­ate­ly drawn to each oth­er, and through their rela­tion­ship, Stel­la finds that she can still use her nose and be help­ful. This ten­der nov­el from a dog’s per­spec­tive will help read­ers under­stand the impor­tance of ani­mals in their lives. This empa­thet­ic read is also full of impor­tant themes and lessons for young read­ers-brav­ery, how to over­come fears, and that mis­takes don’t have to define us. VERDICT A heart­felt dog sto­ry that read­ers young and old will enjoy.” (School Library Jour­nal, Ali­cia Kalan)