middlegrade nonfiction. Gary Paulsen true adventure stories with more animals? I thought he couldn't miss with that one, but I found the entries inside a bit fragmented, like partial journal entries from a mind that wanders a lot. Which still might be really good, but I was hoping for something that younger kids might pick up and get into right away, and after 18 pages I hadn't found that. ( )

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This book wasn't what I was expecting it to be. It is a higher level book than most of what my students read, which I like to chose for read alouds, but it just didn't interest them. I love Gary Paulsen as a fiction writer, but as a non-fiction autobiographical writer, he just seemed to miss his connections with the kids. He has great stories, but for some reason, the book just misses the mark...especially compared to "Hatchet." ( )

This book is the first non- fiction book I've read in while. It's about the author, Gary Paulsen's, life. The first part of the book talks about Gary Paulsen's childhood. Then he moves to Alaska and gets a dog named Corky that saves his life from a bear. That's when Gary really starts to connect to animals. Then he moves back Texas and meets a super sweet dog that acts like a human, named Gretchen. For example the dog loves coffee,and if you say something like snake she will shake her head no. If you say something like beef Gretchen will shake his head yes. There are also tons of other things that make the dog human like, but putting them all in the review would make this too long. Later the owner of Gretchen passes away and Gretchen moves to a new family. In the next chapter Gary meets a women who predicts the future using her dog's body language and stuff. She predicts that Gary will never be content, a girl named Gretchen wants to talk to him and he will travel somewhere that smells really bad. Guess what? in the next chapter Gary does travel somewhere that smells really bad. He moves to a sheep ranch where he meets a border collie named Louise who likes Gary until he shoots a sheep by accident. He was trying to protect the sheep and Louise from a coyote, but ended up killing a poor harmless sheep. The last short story about his life is about his horse protecting a rabbit from a bunch of coyotes. That's pretty much all that happens in the book.
Like I said earlier this is the first non- fiction book I've read in a while, and I found it pretty boring. I don't really like non-fiction either so this was extra boring. Even this book was only 118 pages it took forever to read. Or at least that's what it felt like. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you like to read auto biographies, and non-fiction. Thanks for reading this book review. I hope you enjoyed it. ( )

Huge Gary Paulsen fan so I LOVED this book which is a collection of recollections of encounters her has had with animals over the years. Chapter 2 and the story of Gretchen the dog that understands conversations p.47 onwards is great where Gary meets Mr Wiinike and his dog . here he discovers the theory that dogs train people not the other way around and by his recollections of observations of Gretchen this would seem so. One for younger readers but animal lover older readers will also enjoy it. ( )