Dear Hound

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Alfie the deerhound is a large grey puppy. He loves his boy Charlie, and cheese, and he's very good at digging holes. But poor Alfie has got lost and he's scared - of thunderstorms and being hungry and never seeing Charlie again . . .

Meanwhile, Charlie doesn't know what to do - but one thing is for sure- he'll never stop looking for his dear hound. Can Alfie ever find his way back to Charlie - and his great big squashy beanbag in the kitchen?

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 2-4-Alfie, a huge deerhound puppy with expressive ears, gets lost in the heath after he escapes from his dog-sitter. As Charlie and his mother wander around town looking for their pet and hanging up posters, Alfie searches for them. For months, owners and dog just miss each other, outside of the local restaurant (with an accessible trash bin) and in the moors. The animal's fur becomes more and more unkempt, and his face is matted and smeared with grease and dirt from his frequent Dumpster meals, making him look less and less like the picture on the posters. By the book's end, Alfie has run into a couple of improbable comrades, two unlikely villains, and finally, his family. This chapter book will appeal to fans of animal stories who have moved beyond Arnold Lobel's "Frog and Toad" titles (HarperCollins) but aren't quite ready for the length and complexity of E. B. White's Stuart Little. Murphy's expressive black-and-white line spot drawings (sometimes three to a spread) and deerhound notes ("GARDENING: They are great hole-diggers. Once they've started a hole, they don't stop till Australia") heighten the characterizations and add detail to the settings.-Lindsay Persohn, Crystal Lake Elementary, Lakeland, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Alfie is a big, gangly, and innocent deerhound puppy that becomes lost after escaping from a dog daycare center. Some kindly, street-smart foxes take him in, but then hunters capture him and put him to work. Alfie manages to foil the hunters' attempt to shoot his fox friends, but he is injured in the process. Finally, the foxes come up with a plan to lead Alfie's human family to him, and all is set right. Murphy captures the goofy spirit of a deerhound in both words and pencil illustrations that greatly enhance the story. On the first page, for example, she provides a chart explaining how a deerhound's ears convey its moods, and this chart is referenced in each subsequent illustration of Alfie. Young readers will enjoy this lighthearted story, and they may also enjoy the British point of view, where all activities are interrupted for tea breaks. Chris Kurz's The Pup Who Cried Wolf (2010) also features a similar canine adventure story.--Morning, Todd Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Endearing deerhound puppy Alfie accidentally gets separated from his dog-sitter. He ends up living in the wild with two kind foxes who aid him in his quest to find the family that is desperately searching for him. After an encounter with nasty fox-hunting "lampers," Alfie returns home, in a satisfying ending to this warmly told and expressively illustrated gentle adventure. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Alfie, an adolescent deerhound who's been left with a dog-sitter, is spooked by an encounter with an electric fence. He runs off into heavily forested Hawkland Heath, where the distraught animal is befriended by a pair of kindly foxes. Although miserable, he learns to cope with life in the forest. Things are much worse for his master, Charlie, who desperately misses his exuberant pet. Although he and his mother continue to search for Alfie for months, having several near misses, the dog is finally found by a dognapper bent on training him to illegally hunt at night with a bright light"lamping," in British parlance. Having once taken a vow (with his family cat) to never chase animals, he isn't about to break it with a thug. In the end, the foxes find a way to help deserving Alfie. Murphy deftly conveys the dog's angst with occasional all-caps dialogue. Her charming black-and-white line illustrations appear on every spread, extending the simple text and making this an excellent choice for readers recently transitioned to chapter books. (Animal fantasy. 7-11)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.