Enchanting Review: Boys Are Dogs

BOYS ARE DOGS
LESLIE MARGOLIS
Contemporary Middle Grade
Bloomsbury
ISBN# 978-1-59990-221-0
208 Pages
$15.99
Hardcover--Available Now

Rating: 4 Enchantments

When Annabelle returns from summer camp, she’s in for a whole lot of changes. She knew her mother was moving them into a house with her boyfriend Ted, aka Dweeble, but there’s also the change in schools, from an all girls elementary to Birchwood Middle School and the biggest surprise of all--a cute new puppy--to deal with. Getting used to a new school is hard enough, but dealing with boys, especially bullying, jerkish boys is harder than Annabelle originally thought it would be. But then she comes up with the idea to start applying her puppy training manual to dealing with the troublesome boys at school.

BOYS ARE DOGS is a really fun middle grade read. Annabelle’s a very likeable, spunk tween who comes up with a unique way to deal with things, especially the annoying boys she’s forced to deal with at school. Her newfound friends at Birchwood, including neighbor Rachel, who unfortunately is the younger sister of one of the bigger jerks of the entire school. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Annabelle’s out eating lunch with her new friend Rachel at school and finds out the boy who sent her to the wrong classroom that morning on the first day of school is none other then Rachel’s older brother, Jackson.

Ms. Margolis does a great job capturing what its like dealing with a new puppy and struggling to fit in at a new school at the same time and I loved the uniqueness of Annabelle applying the puppy training manual to dealing with boys. Anyone looking for a fun middle grade read won’t go wrong picking up BOYS ARE DOGS.

Leslie Margolis lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her fairly well-trained six toed mutt named Aunt Blanche and her less-well-trained husband, Jim. She is also the author of the young adult novels FIX and PRICE OF ADMISSION. Visit her online at www.lesliemargolis.com

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
December 2008