Midnight at the Shelter

September 15, 2022
A three-legged rescue dog helps other shelter dogs escape The Unthinkable and matches them with their perfect forever homes. Canines MahDi and Ozzie and feline Domino live with MomDoc; MahDi and Ozzie are frequent visitors to MomDoc's veterinary practice and the local shelter. Mike and Rebecca usually run the shelter, but a man called Huck is taking over temporarily while Mike goes to the hospital, and all the animals--plus Toby, MomDoc's 13-year-old neighbor--have a bad feeling about Huck. MahDi serves as the main narrator, but stories told by nine other dogs who all ultimately end up at the shelter are interwoven. When Huck puts an orange tag on each of their crates, marking them for euthanasia, MahDi and his friends conduct a breakout, delivering each dog to a new home. An epilogue that takes place a month later ties up all the stories neatly and provides a final reunion. Some readers may struggle to keep the expanding cast of characters straight, and the pace of the story is somewhat slow until the breakout, but each dog's story illustrates one of the many ways dogs come to need new homes and how wonderful rescue animals can be. Human characters are minimally described and seem to follow a White default. Animal lovers will appreciate the canine content if they have the patience to read until all the stories converge. (Fiction. 8-12)

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October 10, 2022
Alternating dogs’-eye views propel this immersive pack story from Steveson (Lizzie Flying Solo). A former shelter dog, three-legged MahDi now lives with
veterinarian MomDoc, who often volunteers at a local dog shelter, where she and MahDi act as intuitive matchmakers for canines and people. When a temporary manager takes charge, his blatant fear of dogs—and willingness to designate long-term residents for euthanasia, or “The Unthinkable”—escalates the stakes for the already vulnerable charges, and MahDi tries to find each the right forever home, an intervention that culminates in the titular midnight event. Primarily following MahDi’s perceptive, dialogue-laden narration, the viewpoint shifts between a full cast of dogs who detail experiences of hardscrabble survival, abandonment, and abuse en route to the shelter (“The leg where she shot me last time burns hot with fever,” one account reads). The expansive cast can be difficult to track across perspective shifts, but themes of love, hope, and belonging resound throughout, balancing the sometimes dark content. Human protagonists read as white. A veterinarian’s afterword concludes. Ages 8–12. Agent: Susan Cohen, Writers House.