Best Dog Books: BEEM by gavel troyepolsky

Best Dog Books is a blog that features children’s books with key dog characters. Sometimes an adult dog book sneaks in but for the most part Best Dog Books aims to help kids, their parents, teachers, and librarians find dog books.

From the publisher:

When Beem was born, his coloring was all wrong for a purebred Gordon setter. He was white, with one black ear, and the breeder was prepared to destroy him. But a different sort of man, a recent widower, was beguiled by the infant pup and took him away to the quiet, book-filled room that was home.

There, while Beem learned the rules a dog has to know, he learned still more profoundly to love and trust the man who fed him, scolded him, petted him and talked to him as though he had human understanding. And, indeed, watching his master’s face and way of moving, alert to every change of voice, Beem came to understand a great deal. Dog and man lived together in complete communion, sharing the bad days and the good.

Then shrapnel – souvenir of war. Beem’s master lay in bed, twisted with pain, trying to explain to Beem. Beem could do nothing. When two white-coated men brought a stretcher and took his master to the hospital, he could not follow. “Wait, Beem,” his master ordered. The woman next door came in to feed him but he would not eat. And one morning, when she opened the door, Beem raced past her to the street. He was going to find his master on his own.

Original version written in Russian and called White Bim Black Ear.

For other great books about dogs, check out 101 Best Dog Books for Kids.

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