Eileen Beha

Tango led a charmed life with his Manhattan socialite owner, Marcellina, enjoying every luxury imaginable, from a silver collar to a pearl-studded leash. But when the little Yorkshire terrier is washed overboard during a yachting trip, he eventually finds himself on Canada's Prince Edward Island, where a new life awaits him. Taken in by the widowed Augusta - known to the locals as Miss Gustie - Tango is determined to return to his old life, but unsure of how to do so. Meanwhile, there are other newcomers in the village of Victoria-by-the-Sea, from orphaned twelve-year-old McKenna Skye, on the run from an abusive foster-care home, to the mysterious Beau Fox, an elderly vulpine figure who has watched over McKenna since she was an infant. Added to the mix are Nigel the three-legged cat, a friendless feline who has taken up with a sinister gang of cats living in an abandoned house, and Malachi the mad rat, driven insane by human experimentation, and darkly plotting his revenge against the world. All their stories collide, as Tango embarks on a journey of discovery, in which he learns just where he belongs...

Published in 2009, Tango is author Eileen Beha's debut novel for children. It offers a fairly engaging tale, one populated by a number of interesting characters, both animal and human. That said, I sometimes felt that not all of the characters' stories worked well together, and that the narrative focus was too divided. As someone with an interest in the figure of the fox in children's literature - I tracked down a copy of the book specifically because it contained the character of Beau Fox - it probably isn't surprising that I enjoyed the story of Beau's faithful devotion to McKenna the best, out of all the various narrative strands in the book. I also appreciated the guidance Beau offered to his canine cousin, Tango, and thought that these two story strands - Tango's involuntary adoption by Miss Gustie, and McKenna's search for a true home - worked together very well, both thematically and structurally. The story strands involving Nigel and the other cats who live in Pitiful Place, and Malachi the deranged rat, on the other hand, seemed unnecessary, and sometimes even a little distasteful. Beha didn't really devote enough time to fully exploring the issues raised by Nigel's character flaws - he has a conscience, but has trouble following it - or by the implicit human betrayal of animalkind that created a place such as Pitiful Place, and its residents. Nigel himself reflects, at one point, that no one took him in - a cat injured by human traps - when he needed help, but Beha never raises the matter again. By the same token, Malachi is meant to be the sole survivor of some kind of experiment (as well as a later purge of the rodents taken in by Old Ada Phillips), but the significance of this fact (and its potential power as a means of provoking reflection) is mostly lost, given the relatively little attention the character is given, in the narrative. Never fully explored, these characters and their stories feel like nothing so much as an intrusion upon the 'real' tale of Tango, Miss Gustie, McKenna and Beau. Still, despite these flaws, I did enjoy the book, both as an animal story and as an orphan tale. The latter struck me as particularly appropriate, given that Prince Edward Island's most famous daughter, the author L.M. Montgomery, was renowned for her tales of orphans finding a home...… (meer)

The book Tango, by Eileen Beha, is a tale of a dog who grew up in Manhattan for three years. I did not like this book. It was boring. I read forty pages and it was confusing.

At First I was like, who is Sadie? Who is Mr. Bailey? Why is this Sadie hoping not to lose her offspring and naming them when she hasn't for the last three years? I did not know what was really going on when two people bought him it just got more boring. Was I supposed to keep reading? I read for two weeks trying to read it without falling asleep. The accident with the boat happened too fast. It was like a creaking noise then the chapter ended. Then the boat was gone and there were a bunch of random people trying to take care of a "little rat."

The book was just becoming more confusing after the boat crashed. Who were all these people? Why is that animal staring at someone taking something out of the ground? What was so important about it? I do not recommend this book.… (meer)