Dogs of the Deadlands: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WEEK JUNIOR BOOK AWARDS
£5.30£7.60 (-30%)
‘It broke my heart and then splinted it back together again… Magnificent.’ Hannah Gold, bestselling author of The Last Bear
‘A dog’s eye perspective that’s so vivid you can almost taste the earthworms.’ FT, YA Book of the Year
‘This visceral story of heartbreak and survival…has the memorable feel of a classic.’ Guardian, Best children’s and YA books of 2022
Chernobyl, 1986. Natasha’s world is coming to an end. Forced to evacuate her home in the middle of the night, she must leave her puppy behind and has no idea if she’ll ever return. Some time later, growing up in the shadow of the ruined nuclear power plant, pups Misha and Bratan have to learn how to live in the wild―and fast. Creatures with sharp teeth, claws, and yellow eyes lurk in the overgrown woods. And they’re watching the brothers’ every move…
But will the dogs survive without humans? And can humans live without them?
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | Rock the Boat (7 Sept. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 320 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0861546393 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0861546398 |
| Reading age | 10 years and up |
| Dimensions | 12.9 x 2.3 x 19.8 cm |
by J SYDNEY
By Conner Black, age 10:
I think Dogs of the Deadlands is my favourite book of the year, if not my favourite book of all time. I loved the storytelling, the dogs’ encounters with other animals and their adventures. I found it all so gripping and loved the dog’s eye view and how genuine and real it all was, as real as fiction can be.
I loved the fact that the dogs were so easy to sympathise with, they somehow managed to befriend a bear and a horse! One of my favourite scenes involved a catfish, but there were lots of cliff-hangers and I found the book a real page-turner. If I could, I’d give it 11 out of 10.
by Georgina W.
The story begins with the love of a pup and then life is disrupted and the girl and pup separated not by war but by Chernobyl’s reactor explosion. So the background is the deadland but around nature survives in all its ways. The author describes the dog/wolf and wolves lives with great insight and enough detail to keep us reading on. Yes, very readable for all ages. And Life goes on.
by Di Toft
I read this to my 8-year old boy and we were captivated from the start. Normally we pass books on but we’re keeping this one. It’s a keeper! We were both so moved by it. The personification of the animals is just fabulous. We do wish Anthony would write another.
by Mr. F. I. Dudaniec
Read this to the kids who loved it. Quite a departure from other works we have read by this author which we have liked also. Dogs, bears, wolves, the brutal scramble for life and survival. What is not to like?
by N M Garrard
If you enjoy exciting stories about animals – especially brave dogs and scary wolves – this is the book for you! It’s also a story of hope – how to keep going when everything seems broken. It’s a story that can be enjoyed by all ages, a classic in the making.
by Buzzinhornet
An exquisitely written story, one full of hope and heartbreak, it is astonishingly good and one that is very much deserving of all the praise heaped upon it.
by N M Garrard
I read this wonderful, beautifully written story to/with my 12 year old son, covering one chapter a night as a bedtime story (who says older kids are too old for bedtime stories?!) He loved it and I loved it just as much, maybe for different reasons – I loved the beautiful prose and the poignancy, and my son loved the adventures and fight/flight/survival scenes. It was incredibly powerful, often brutal, and I cried during more than one scene. Luckily, my dog (pictured) came to the rescue with some doggy devotion and sat on my lap during one of the more heartbreaking scenes! It’s one of those books, like those of Philip Pullman, that respects children’s intelligence and their ability to understand emotional and ethical complexity. This is a modern children’s classic! I’d recommend it to adults as well as children from Year 6 (11yrs) upwards.
by Susan Purkiss
This book begins just before the Chernobyl disaster, and deals with its aftermath, both for the humans who were forced to leave their homes, and for the animals which were abandoned to their fate. It begins with a tender chapter, describing how thrilled Natasha is with her new puppy, Zoya. But within hours, the disaster happens, and everyone is told they must leave – and crucially, they must leave their pets behind. Natasha is heartbroken, and her loss overshadows the rest of her childhood; while Zoya must find a way to survive.
McGowan is absolutely brilliant at getting under the skin of Zoya and the other animals which feature in the novel. There is no sentimentality here, no talking animals: life is brutal, and death is always close, and McGowan pulls no punches. It’s a long time since I read Jack London, but this book reminds me of his classics, White Fang and Call of the Wild; and it also very much reminds me of Kes, by Barry Hines, a more recent classic. Very strongly recommended – but readers will need a strong stomach: it’s not for the faint-hearted!