No More Dead Dogs – Gordon Korman
180 pages; Copyright 2000
Age range: Older children [6th grade and up]
Review by Richard Sanders

This week’s book is sort of a “pulp” novel for older kids. It’s the comic story of Wallace Wallace [no, that’s not a typo], a compulsively truthful football player who never backs down when he expresses an honest opinion. The opinion that gets him in trouble is his harsh critique of a “classic” novel… the novel in question [a dog story called Old Shep, My Pal] being a favorite of his English teacher’s. In an effort to coerce a better book report, the English teacher suspends Wallace from the football team, and has him serve detentions in the afternoons with the drama club so that the misguided student will finally see the book as the sterling piece of literature that it is. Coincidentally, the club is rehearsing a dramatic version of Old Shep, My Pal. During the production’s progress, Wallace begins to offer suggestions that address what he sees as the novel’s shortcomings. His efforts to update a “time-honored” story for a 21st-century audience are at first annoying to everyone, but gradually he wins people over to his way of thinking… and then a new problem emerges: a mysterious saboteur who keeps trying to wreck the play.

This may not sound exactly like a Newbery Award winner… and it isn’t. The plot is a bit contrived, sometimes the jokes are a little forced, and the characters are not exactly what you’d call “developed”, but No More Dead Dogs is a quick, funny read. Some of the humor is very clever, and many young readers should enjoy Wallace’s efforts to convince his teacher that sometimes, what’s classic to one generation may not be all that relevant to another – and that the dog doesn’t always have to die. Again, not quite great literature, but in these days when a report from the National Endowment for the Arts suggests that, as a nation, we’re reading less, quick, funny reads may be a key stepping stone for younger readers. Gordon Korman has written more than 30 novels. No More Dead Dogs and other titles are available at the Hart County Library and other PINES libraries.

----------------
Richard R. Sanders
Director - Hart County Library