Booklist Reviews
Like cats, dogs have multiple lives. At least, Bailey, the canine narrator of this first novel, has more than one. Bailey's first life is spent as a feral puppy who learns to trust humans after living with a loving but slightly dotty woman who owns too many dogs to suit the county. Bailey is removed by animal control, and his next life brings him to young Ethan, the human Bailey will love and search for through all his subsequent lives, first as part of K-9 Search and Rescue and then as a dumped and mistreated mutt. Through all these lives, Bailey contemplates his purpose in a voice full of curiosity and humor. He ruminates on the usefulness of cats ("none") and the strange natures of humans ("Am I a good dog or a bad dog? They can't decide"). This quickly paced, touching novel will charm all animal fans, especially those who loved Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain (2009) and Vicki Myron's Dewey (2008), the best-selling saga of a library cat. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews.
Booklist Reviews
Introduced in Cameron's A Dog's Purpose (2010), good dog Buddy finds a new role in life after his beloved master, Ethan, dies when he rescues Ethan's toddler granddaughter, Clarity, from a near-fatal accident. When Clarity's self-absorbed and dog-hating mother whisks her away, Buddy wonders if he'll ever see her again. Buddy doesn't, but Molly does. As all good dogs must, Buddy dies, but his spirit and mission live on in Molly, a dog the now-teenage Clarity adopts at a time when she battles her mother's psychological abuse and a violent ex-boyfriend's threats. In the years ahead, a self-destructive and emotionally fragile Clarity will manage to find her own purpose, but only with the help of Max, a spitfire chihuahua, and a gentle beagle named Toby, who carry on Buddy's protective devotion. Once again endearing himself to animal lovers, Cameron explores the concept of canine karma with acute sensitivity and exhibits cunning insight into life from a dog's perspective. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.
Booklist Reviews
Soft-hearted medical student Lucas Ray has been keeping an eye on and setting out food for a colony of feral cats in a soon-to-be-demolished building across from the subsidized apartment he shares with his war-veteran mother. Along with the abandoned cats and kittens, however, is a lone puppy of indeterminate breed. For Lucas and the dog, it is love at first sight. Bella, as she comes to be called, also comes to be identified as a pit bull, a breed that has run afoul of Denver's strict animal-control laws. One infraction too many sends Bella into foster care hundreds of miles away from her beloved Lucas and sanctuary home. Though Bella meets kind people during her separation, she has but one goal: to return to Lucas. Braving a 400-mile journey across cougar- and coyote-infested wilderness and facing myriad urban dangers, Bella persists in her desire to be reunited with her human and home. Ever popular with dog lovers, Cameron (The Dog Master, 2015) presents another winning tale of an extraordinary human-canine companionship full of tug-at-the-heartstrings adventure. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
One of the toughest elements of dog books for readers and writers is that dogs have a far shorter life span than their human companions. Cameron (8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter) handles this situation by following his canine protagonist through several lifetimes. Bailey, as he is called in one incarnation, experiences the whole range of lives available to dogs in contemporary America, from puppy-mill survivor to loving family pet to police dog to stray. Through his many lives, Bailey searches for his purpose, his reason for living and living again. Bailey's courage and determination are tested as he travels towards his goal. VERDICT By turns funny, heartwarming, and touching without being overly sentimental, Cameron's novel successfully illuminates the breadth of the American dogscape.
[Page 78]. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.Library Journal Reviews
Another dog book? You bet. And since Cameron's 2010 A Dog's Purpose was on the best sellers lists for nearly five months in hardcover and remains on the best sellers lists in paperback, you can also bet that this meditation on how dogs take care of us will be big.
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Publishers Weekly Reviews
A tail-wagging three hanky boo-hooer, this delightful fiction debut by newspaper columnist Cameron (8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter) proposes that a dog's purpose might entail being reborn several times. Told in a touching, doggy first-person, this unabashedly sentimental tale introduces Toby, who's rescued by a woman without a license for her rescue operation, so, sadly, Toby ends up euthanized. He's reborn in a puppy mill and after almost dying while left in a hot car, he's saved again by a woman, and he becomes Bailey, a beloved golden retriever, who finds happiness and many adventures. His next intense incarnation is as Ellie, a female German shepherd, a heroic search and rescue dog. But the true purpose of this dog's life doesn't become totally clear until his reincarnation as Buddy, a black Lab. A book for all age groups who admire canine courage, Cameron also successfully captures the essence of a dog's amazing capacity to love and protect. And happily, unlike Marley, this dog stays around for the long haul. (July)
[Page ]. Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.Publishers Weekly Reviews
In this utterly charming and often heartbreaking follow-up to A Dog's Purpose, Buddy, a faithful dog who, through numerous reincarnations has valiantly protected the lives of his humans, narrates the story of his relationship with Clarity June. Clarity's mother is negligent, so Buddy has his work cut out for him, and Clarity, while still a toddler, has already been saved from drowning, poisoning, and horse trampling when she and her mother, Gloria, leave the safety of Clarity's paternal grandmother's home for a series of increasingly bad situations. After Buddy's life ends, the pup is reborn as Molly and reunited with Clarity, now a troubled teenager called CJ with multiple insecurities and problems. CJ's self-destructive tendencies and carelessness send Molly to the great beyond, but the canine comes back, first as Max and then as Toby, each time affecting CJ's life in positive ways. Ultimately, the good dog, after years of service, learns the reward given to devoted angels masquerading as pets. Robert Frost said, "no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader"; if this is true, then Cameron must have wept buckets. Readers will devour this wonderful story and cry from beginning to end. Sweet and heartfelt, Cameron likely has another bestseller on his hands. (May)
[Page ]. Copyright 2012 PWxyz LLC