A Guard Dog Named Honey

Bean’s 16-year-old brother, Willis, gets arrested on her 11th birthday for drunkenly crashing someone else’s car. When her single mother, who works at the Stop & Shop, says they don’t have enough to bail him out, the girl—whose worries bring on hives and vertigo—decides to earn the money herself. Heading to the wealthy section of Rock Haven, the Massachusetts island where she’s lived her whole life, she looks for a summer family to hire her for odd jobs. When no one bites, Bean sets her sights on Phoebe, a wealthy girl who is staying for the summer with her nanny and dog, Honey, while her parents tour Europe. When Phoebe discloses that Honey, an Italian Neapolitan mastiff, is a purebred worth $3,000, Bean persuades the child, whose parents consistently let her down, to sell the dog. Bean finds a shady buyer, and a related mystery, just as Honey adopts three baby kittens, nursing them and carrying them in her jowls. Bean’s believable desperation to help her brother is poignant in this empathic story featuring well-wrought characters who are trying their very best. Ages 8–12. [em](Mar.) [/em]