Dancing Through the Snow
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Jean Little's poignant novel about an abandoned girl, and the dog who helps teach her how to trust again.
Ten-year-old Min has had a long history of foster care since she was abandoned at age three. Now, let go by yet another foster family, Min continues to build a protective wall around herself. Her newest caregiver, a former Children's Aid doctor, sees past Min's hardened shell and tries to find a way to reach her...and does, finally, by taking in a sick, neglected dog that has escaped from a puppy mill. While watching the dog recover and open its heart to its new owners, Min comes out of her own shell.
Readers will rejoice as Min opens her heart and allows herself to be a part of a loving family, to make friends and to finally stand up to the taunts of a bully, whose hurtful words have contributed to her lack of self-esteem.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As a small child, Min was abandoned in a restroom by her caretaker and has been passed between four foster families in eight years, with no idea who her parents are. Little's (Somebody Else's Summer) story opens as Min is being returned to the Children's Aid Office right before Christmas. Jess, a doctor who once treated Min, comes to her rescue, taking Min home because she too was once a foster child. Because of her past history, Min has trouble trusting Jess and making friends (the school bully calls her "Litter-Bin Min"). But Jess's love is steadfast and Min comes around ("In one glorious rush, all her jumbled feelings slid away like snow off a peaked roof. She stood transfixed, trying to take in the fragile wonder dawning within her"). By the end of the story Min has a new mother as well as new friends, including Jess's former foster son, Toby. Though, at times, the dialogue is not entirely credible, as when 12-year-old Toby tells Jess, "You can cuddle with me any time," the story moves smoothly to its unsurprising but satisfying conclusion. Ages 9 13.
