Elf Dog and Owl Head
Ratings2
Average rating4.8
15
Ratings2
Average rating4.8
A Newbery Honor Book "A hilarious, heartfelt triumph."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) From the singular imagination of National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson comes a magical adventure about a boy and his dog—or a dog and her boy—and a forest of wonders hidden in plain sight. Clay has had his fill of home life. A global plague has brought the world to a screeching halt, and with little to look forward to but a summer of video-calling friends, vying with annoying sisters for the family computer, and tuning out his parents’ financial worries, he’s only too happy to retreat to the woods. From the moment the elegant little dog with the ornate collar appears like an apparition among the trees, Clay sees something uncanny in her. With this mysterious Elphinore as guide, he’ll glimpse ancient secrets folded all but invisibly into the forest. Each day the dog leads Clay down paths he never knew existed, deeper into the unknown. But they aren’t alone in their surreal adventures. There are traps and terrors in the woods, too, and if Clay isn’t careful, he might stray off the path and lose his way forever. Graced with evocative black-and-white illustrations by Junyi Wu, Elf Dog and Owl Head is heartfelt and exhilarating, wry and poignant, seamlessly merging the fantastic and the familiar in a tale both timely and timeless.
Reviews with the most likes.
Simply NO ONE is doing it like MT Anderson!! All of his books are so different from each other in terms of content/genre and yet they are all so good. Fuck. What the fuck. How is he doing it. This book is a fun fantasy and a painful but moving look back at early COVID quarantine days. It's a coming of age story. The dog doesn't die. The dog's narration is incredible. The illustrations by Junyi Wu are incredible. I think it would be a great classroom or bedtime readaloud. I think adults should read it. I think dogs should read it. I think dogs should be allowed to vote. I think MT Anderson should write a book about a magical cat next but it's probably going to be like, an instruction manual for mining equipment written in verse, and I'll fucking read that too.
