Shiloh

Naylor won the coveted Newbery Award for Shiloh, for good reason. The story is heartwarming, beautifully written, and timeless. When 11-year-old Marty finds a young, starving beagle near his home in the West Virginia mountains, he is faced with a moral dilemma: keep a dog who is not his or return the dog to an abusive home. One of the many reasons I love this book is Naylor does an excellent job of creating characters that are multidimensional and so very relatable. Even the “bad guy!” This is the first in a series of three books about Marty and… show more.

Marty comes across a cowering dog who has been abused by his owner. Instead of turning the dog back over to his brutal owner, Marty makes the decision to defy his parents and authorities and keep the dog in secret, and a beautiful relationship blooms between the two. I read this classic middle-grade novel aloud to my kids when they were about five and eight. Nuanced, uncliched, and thoughtful, it explores themes of poverty, parental relationships, responsibility, and kindness. I love that it shows a boy displaying empathy and care. It makes me choke up to think about—just as when… show more.