Realistic Fiction/Young Adult
321 pages
Denny loves race car driving. It’s just who he is. He works as a mechanic just to be around cars when he isn’t racing in the circuit. He would be happy just winding around the track mile after mile. Even his dog Enzo is caught up in the sport while listening to Denny analyze the driving on TV. But then Denny meets Eve, and she is everything to him. When their daughter, Zoe, is born, life is complete.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long. Eve is diagnosed with brain cancer, and her parents take Zoe with them, leaving Denny to fend for himself. They later take everything from him, even attacking his honor. Racing has built his character, and the lessons he’s learned on the track give him the will to persevere, but at some point it all seems hopeless. He is accused of a terrible crime and could lose it all. At times only his faithful dog Enzo (who tells the story from his point of view) can see Denny for the man he truly is.
I highly recommend this book to mature readers 8th grade and up who love a good story (there is a younger reader’s edition too). It made me laugh, cry, and sit on the edge of my seat in suspense. It’s a love story for people, passion, and the pets who bring it all together.
P.S. This is truly an example of a book that is WAY better than the movie which doesn’t come even close to capturing the best of this book!
Iris has good friends and is a gifted science student, so why is she so angry and alone? Her mom is gone, killed by a drunk driver, her dad has no time, her English teacher has it in for her (she’s failing), and even the barking dong next door gets on her nerves (she’s been afraid of dogs forever). So she takes it out on her closet walls with a sledgehammer and in her journal with some pretty harsh words. When her journal entries are interpreted as threats, Iris is sentenced to months of community service and summer school. Can the other broken teens and the neglected dogs break through her over protective walls? Will she be able to deal with being abandoned by her old friends or the betrayal of her new friends? And really what will it take for her to heal?
372 pages