Sheep (review)

A young Border Collie is eager to join his father as a trusted herder of sheep on the ranch where he was born, but his future changes abruptly when a fire devastates the ranch and the animals are dispersed. The puppy then embarks on a series of adventures, finding himself in situations ranging from a pet shop to a dog pound to a circus, and encountering humans such as the kindly eccentric Goat Man and the cruel circus owner. Throughout, the young Border Collie searches for the sheep that give his life purpose, but when he finds an orphan boy waiting in a children's home for adoption, he realizes that he may find meaning in a way he never expected. As the orphan-boy plot suggests, the book is sentimental sometimes to the point of being maudlin, with characters hackneyed devices rather than believable individuals; the book's slenderness also means that the sequence of events passes so quickly that the dog's experiences are too fleeting for impact. The dog narrator's viewpoint also varies from superhuman omniscience to doggy understanding, but the recurring focus on the Border Collie's sheep fixation and desire to herd grant an element of verisimilitude. Manipulative though it may be, this accessible story of a doggy in distress will inevitably pull in some readers, but most would be better off with Finney's comedic yet infinitely more credible I, Jack (BCCB 4/04).