Sharron was five when her father gave her the Friskative Dog. And just like the best-loved toys from The Velveteen Rabbit, Sharron has made the Friskative Dog real through her love and devotion.

Now Sharron is nine, and her father is missing, and the Friskative Dog is more necessary to her than ever. Her father walked out about a year ago and has been lost to her ever since. If he were a dog, he'd be able to find his way home, Sharron thinks. But people don't have the same homing instincts as dogs. And you can't train them to be true.

The Friskative Dog is about a young girl coming to accept that families can take all different shapes and sizes, and learning to live with hope and patience.

Susan Straight has written a spare, delicate story, rich in metaphor and meaning, and full of love.

"In this unusually told story, nine-year-old Sharron lives with her mother, Karen, and clings to her stuffed dog as though he were real, in the wake of her father's disappearance a year ago. About halfway through the novel, which unfolds mostly from Sharron's limited perspective, the girl overhears her grandmother telling her mother that her father has begun a new life with another woman. Karen seems to accept the situation better than Sharron, who likens her father to a wandering coyote and, even more oddly, ruminates on the relationship between dog tags and human identity changes. The true drama takes place in Sharron's school, where two spoiled girls begin bullying Sharron and stealing her dog. The often jarring narrative slips in tense, time and point of view. Although the tale centers on an elementary student, the book's complex structure and some haiku-like metaphors may well challenge even adult readers' imaginations: 'The fog hung over the pool, making diamonds on the black iron railings, swirling around the carports.' Things work out well enough in the end; Sharron and her mother carry on with their lives. However, it's difficult to pinpoint who might be the appropriate audience for Straight's (I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots) curious novel. Ages 8-12." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“Readers will . . . be glad to see the quiet and persistent heroine rewarded not only with the love of a good dog but with the promise of a closer family.”The Bulletin

From the Trade Paperback edition.

“Beautifully-written narrative.”Kirkus Reviews

This engaging novel is the story of a young girl coming to accept that families can take all different shapes and sizes, and learning to live with hope and patience.

Susan Straight is the author of many highly acclaimed novels for adults, including Highwire Moon, a National Book Award Nominee, and I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots. She lives in California with her three daughters.