But when her custodial wisdom goes all wrong, Mattie’s plan comes crashing down. Work that will keep her safely away from the other fifth graders. But if she can be Uncle Potluck’s apprentice, she’ll have important work to do during lunch and recess. One week until school starts and she has to be the new girl again. She has just one week to convince Uncle Potluck to take her on as his custodial apprentice at Mitchell P. Here is the publisher’s blurb if that helps:įix things before they get too big for fixing.Ĭustodial wisdom: Mattie Breen writes it all down. It’s my plan to convince you to read Hound Dog True without giving one piece of it away. You see what I mean? 200 words in and I still haven’t written about the book at all. Nerdy proclaims our book love to the world, but Hound Dog True whispers why books matter to readers in the first place. My emotional attachment to the book mixes with my feelings for every student I have passed the book to this year. Writing about Hound Dog True scares me because I don’t want to ruin it for myself.

Some books you read and some books read you and some books fit right under your ribs, so you can carry them with you. But have you ever read a book and loved it so much that you didn’t want to share it with anyone? As if the moment you told someone, the book would melt like a snowflake in a hot palm or wilt like a picked flower. This blog is all about sharing-our reading and writing lives, the books we love, and our work with children. If you’ve read Hound Dog True, it shouldn’t surprise you at all. Considering the importance of this book to Nerdy lore, it’s surprising that we haven’t posted a review of Hound Dog True before now. As many of you know, online debates about whether or not our beloved Hound Dog True would garner major book awards last year sparked Colby Sharp and me to start the Nerdy Book Club awards and this blog.

Hound Dog True by Linda Urban