About this book:
“A girl with a missing dog. A magazine photo that points north. A pink-haired aunt with a beloved old car and a heart for adventure. Will Kimmy’s rescue mission bring Bo home?
Twelve-year-old Kimmy trusts dogs more than people.
After all, her dog Bo never made fun of her for having one hand. But two years ago, Bo disappeared.
When Kimmy stumbles across a magazine photo of a dog in upstate New York that looks just like Bo, she knows she has to find him. Her parents seem oddly unsupportive, but pink-haired, adventure-hungry Aunt Skylar agrees to a road trip with a stop in the Adirondacks. Kimmy jumps at the chance to bring her furry family member home.
Unfortunately, Aunt Skylar’s idea of a road trip isn’t the rescue mission Kimmy had in mind.”
Series: Book #1 in the “Road Trip Rescue” series. Book 2 releases in the fall of 2024.
Spiritual Content- Matthew 28:20 at the beginning; At the end of the book in the author’s note, the author shares about God, salvation, & never being alone because God is with you always; Prayers, Blessings over the food, & Thanking Jesus; A couple talks about God & Him always being with Kimmy (when asked about it once, Kimmy gives the “Sunday school answer” about it, but later believes it herself); 'H's are not capital when referring to God; Mentions of God, Jesus, Him always being with us, God making Kimmy with one hand, & forgiveness; A few mentions of prayers & praying; A few mentions of those in the Bible; A couple mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of Sunday school; A mention of someone thanking Jesus; A mention of Bible verses; A mention of God’s beautiful earth; A mention of Heaven;
*Note: Mentions of a character from Veggie Tales; A mention of a ghost (phrase used).
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’ and two ‘stupid’s, A mention of a string of curses (said by Kimmy’s aunt, but not written out); A tiny bit of eye rolling; Throwing up (barely-above-not-detailed); Kimmy is scared after nearly being ran off the road & her aunt following the man to yell at him (the man didn’t see them and Kimmy says that they forgive him when the man is near tears); Kimmy cries herself to sleep at times because of her missing dog & things not going as planned; A couple of times, Kimmy lashes out to someone who was trying to be nice to her (she feels guilty and later apologizes); Kimmy lies to an adult (thinking that it didn’t feel good and that her parents would be disappointed, but is upset at them at this moment and thinks that they have no room to speak about not lying); Kimmy scares her aunt by wandering off by herself (*Spoiler* Kimmy says that she didn’t think her aunt would care, but her aunt was worried that she could have been swept out to sea; They both later apologize to the other for wandering off and for yelling *End of Spoiler*); Kimmy eavesdrops on her mom’s phone call (despite knowing it was wrong) and is caught, but no punishment is given; *Spoiler* Kimmy tries to enter someone’s home when they aren’t home and is caught before she goes inside (no punishment is given) *End of Spoiler*; Kimmy recalls hearing her (former) BFF talking and laughing about her and her arm with the popular girls (being unkind and calling her a ‘freak’, which really hurt Kimmy and has made her feel very lonely since then; Kimmy wonders if she was just a joke to them); Kimmy wonders why her parents are acting strange about her trying to find her dog (*Spoiler* When she finds something out about the dog she believes to be her’s, she accuses them of giving away her dog and lying to her for the past two years which makes her very upset and hurt by them; Her mother tells her not to talk to her father than way and to explain what she means, but Kimmy has to go (later, Kimmy doesn’t want to talk to them on the phone because of being upset with them); *Major Spoilers* It turns out that wasn’t the case and they were told about a possibly injured or dead dog on the side of the road that could have been Bo, and didn’t want to tell her about it; She apologizes later and they do as well for keeping this secret from her; Her parents tell her “no matter what you say to us, no matter what you think of us, we’ll always love you.”; We learn that Bo was rescued by someone who needed a friend and is alive *End of Spoilers*); All about many mentions of Kimmy’s dog going missing two years ago & her heartbreak over it (including mentions of what could have happened to him like death, being hit by a car, being attacked by another animal and injured, being dog-napped, & having a new family; barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of an almost car accident & yelling at the other driver; Mentions of injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of throwing up/puking & peeing; Mentions of manure/poop & bad smells; A few mentions of a young boy not remembering his parents (mother died when he was a baby and his father lives in another country); A few mentions of the passing of a man’s wife & his grief; A few mentions of possible fires; A few mentions of hatred; A couple mentions of making up a shark attack story explaining why Kimmy is missing an arm (she does not share it but thinks about it); A couple mentions of the possibility of being electrocuted on a subway; A couple mentions of lying (which Kimmy doesn’t do at one point because she knows it will just make things worse); A couple mentions of cigarettes; A mention of murder; A mention of the death of a mother; A mention of a tunnel collapsing; A mention of a bomb shelter; A mention of stealing; A mention of spreading gossip; A mention of tattoos; A mention of using a paper for toilet paper;
*Note: A side-character (Daniel) is neurodivergent & is scared of loud noises (*Spoiler* he also wanders off at one point which scares everyone else, but is found safe; He later recalls when he wandered off into the woods at a school field-trip and after search-and-rescue got involved, he wasn’t allowed by the teacher to go on any more trips with his class *End of Spoiler*); Kimmy doesn’t like people staring at her because of being one handed so she often wears long sleeves even in the heat and hides her arm (*Spoiler* At one point, she questions wearing a sleeveless dress, but decides to wear it after all *End of Spoiler*); Daniel asks Kimmy if she ever feels like no one wants her around, which makes Kimmy think about it and that that idea does scare her about being lonely; Kimmy’s parents were worried about her going on a road trip with her aunt (particularly because of the aunt’s known irresponsibility and Kimmy’s mom gets upset at the thought); Kimmy’s parents have a “no-phone-until-you’re-thirteen rule” and she thinks about how nice it would be to have one a couple of times; Kimmy sits in the front seat of her aunt’s car because the aunt “cared little for rules” and her parents say nothing about it; Kimmy’s aunt doesn’t want her to call her “aunt” because it makes her feel old (Kimmy doesn’t think she’ll ever break the habit and doesn’t call her by her first name); Kimmy is on the toilet when she sees a photo of what she thinks is her missing dog in a magazine (this is only mentioned because she says that she’s not trying to be funny when she says that her “life changed on the toilet” and later a mention of her pulling up her shorts); A handful of mentions of car brands; A couple mentions of places & restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway); A couple mentions of a TV show (Animal Planet); A couple mentions of a poem (by Robert Frost); A mention of a game (Pictionary); A mention of Google.
Sexual Content- When hearing her aunt talk about her ex-boyfriend & falling in love with him, Kimmy thinks that she knows nothing about falling in love and had a crush on a boy in her class for a while, but stopped when she saw him eat his boogers; *Spoiler* Kimmy and her aunt run into her ex-boyfriend and his little brother (who he is responsible for) & stay with them at their apartment (in separate rooms); Kimmy’s aunt wants to stop their trip so they can have a second chance, but Kimmy convinces them to go on the trip with her and her aunt instead; Kimmy and his brother “crash” their date *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of Kimmy’s aunt’s broken heart, her ex-boyfriend, their break-up, & dating.
-Kimberly “Kimmy” Beckett, age 12
1st person P.O.V. of Kimmy
230 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
Even through I don’t really care for road-trips in real-life, reading about road-trips and adventures that happen on them can be really fun. This book almost had a nostalgic feeling to it, but I can’t place why or how. Perhaps it was the charm of middle-fiction fiction with chapter titles.
I can 99.99% of the time expect a dog-themed book to make me cry. I don’t like those odds as someone who prefers not to cry, but yet, I keep reading them. This one was bittersweet for sure. My sensitive dog-loving heart accepted the ending, but my sensitive dog-mom heart wanted to cry out for Kimmy’s sake.
I do feel like the faith content could have been worked in a bit more than Kimmy being told & later realizing that she’s never alone, that God is always with her, but it was good to see God talked about positively in a middle-grade book that could stand up against secular published ones. Neither Kimmy or the adults in the book are perfect and there’s lessons to learn and forgiveness to give.
Overall (and despite my tears), I did enjoy this one. The ending was a tad rushed, but fit anyway. I look forward to reading the second book when it releases!
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
No comments:
Post a Comment