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(More customer reviews)When I was a boy, I was not a pet person, let alone a dog person. But it wasn't necessarily by choice. My parents were not pet people therefore, my sister and I grew up pet-less. After we went off to college my younger brother rescued a kitten from the tennis courts in town (high schoolers had been pelting it with tennis balls) and my parents allowed him to keep it. Figures! We leave and now the family takes in a pet! Since then, my sister and I have both taken in cats. It's funny how they can become such an important part of your family. In the past, a book like THE DOG DAYS OF CHARLOTTE HAYES would not have gotten much of a reaction out of me. But anymore, I have to turn the television channel when those sad abandoned pet commercials come on!
Charlotte Hayes is not a dog person. But somebody has to take care of Beauregard (the Saint Bernard her father bought because he just can't say "no" to a great deal). Since no one else in the family is jumping at the responsibility, Charlotte feels compelled to fill his water bowl daily, feed him, and rub his belly. But she doesn't like it. And Beauregard deserves a better life. A life he doesn't have to spend chained up in the backyard, rain or shine. He deserves a family that will love him and give him attention. A family with a yellow kitchen and a soft plaid dog bed, just like in Charlotte's dream. When her dad refuses to let Beauregard go (possibly to a family that will appreciate him), Charlotte takes it upon herself to make her dream a reality.
It'd be easy to describe this book as a "dog story" about a girl that doesn't like dogs. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that's what author Marlane Kennedy had in mind when pitching this idea. I think that would be a little misleading though, because it was obvious from page 1 that Charlotte is not quite as annoyed by the furry canine as she claims to be. Sure she tells us through her fun, first-person narrative, that her care for Beauregard is more out of pity than kindness, but her actions speak louder than words. There's something sweet in the way Charlotte talks to Beauregard, in the way she bathes him with her sister Agnes' strawberry shampoo, and how she builds him a makeshift extension for the roof of his too-small doghouse to help keep him dry during rainstorms. The pride she feels in successfully teaching Beauregard how to "shake" and her change in sleeping habits near the end of the novel prove there's more than pity behind her actions. She loves this dog, which makes her mission all the more heartwrenching.
I couldn't help but feel annoyed with the adults in this novel, especially Charlotte's father. Time and time again, he proves to be lazy, immature, and selfish. He neglectfully forgets to take care of Beauregard, but argues profusely to keep him. I didn't understand it. One particularly infuriating scene takes place at a garage sale (Daddy loves a good bargain). Charlotte wants her Daddy to buy a set of paints for her. Daddy doesn't want to buy them until he overhears a couple talking about how great of a deal they are. Daddy then buys the paints . . . but not for Charlotte! For himself! Never once has he shown an interest in painting, and suddenly he buys up a set of paints that his daughter wanted and rubs it in her face by using them all in front of her. Sure by the end of the book Charlotte has moved on but seriously . . . what kind of parent does that?
Later, after Charlotte's scheme is revealed to her parents, they agree to give her three months to raise enough dough ($400) to send Beauregard to a proper Saint Bernard rescue organization. In doing so, she's sacrificing her birthday gifts for the year. Mama even jokes "Well, after she's done paying for him, she should be responsible for buying his bags of dog food too." Who taught these two how to parent? Someone forgot to remind them that THEY were the ones to purchase the dog and that THEY were the ones too irresponsible to take care of it. So now it's okay to take out their frustrations on the poor kid who's trying to make the best of the situation? They are insane!
Despite their poor parenting skills, I really enjoyed this tearjerker of a book. It's short chapters make for a quick and easy read and the touching scenes between Charlotte and Beauregard are great. I got the feeling that this book was set smack dab in the middle of a chaotic time for this family. New baby, new dog, lots of new challenges and by the end of the book, you sense a return to normalcy for this family, even though we don't really know what their normal is. Daddy annoyed me throughout but Mama's transformation from post pardem depression is believable. The character of Petunia was necessary for Charlotte to see Beauregard in a different light. Petunia's loneliness paralleled Beauregard's loneliness nicely and forces Charlotte to own up to her growing feelings for the dog.
Couple this book with ME AND THE PUMPKIN QUEEN and I think Marlane Kennedy is an author worth paying attention to.
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