I usually don't have any trouble sleeping but the last few nights have been awful - so I read 3 short books last night.
When you see Patricia MacLachlan you instantly think it could be good. And this was but...
The book starts with the dog Teddy finding Nickel and Flora in a bad snowstorm by their broken down car. Their mom went to try and get help but the kids are freezing. Teddy rescues them by taking them to his home. As the story progresses we find that Teddy is not an ordinary dog. He is the poet Sylvan's dog - and he can talk to poets and children. During the storm that last for days the children and Teddy survive by finding food and keeping each other warm. The reader learns more about Sylvan and Teddy and how recently Sylvan died. When the storm ends a former student of Sylvan's, Eliza, comes to check on Teddy and helps to reunite the children with their parents.
That is when the book just ended too weirdly or neatly for me - Sylvan's last message to Teddy had been something about jewels and the reader finds out an interesting connection between the kids, Sylvan, and jewels. It just seemed too weird at that point.
A nice little book but not a favorite of mine.
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