After he sets out on a frightening journey of magic and mystery, he encounters battles with heartless forest animals that constantly test his courage, perseverance, and intuition. Season knows the darkness is a rare catastrophe of historic proportions and becomes determined to find a way to stop it. Now, he cannot help but wonder if he has just made the biggest mistake of his life. Desperate to save her, Season makes a fateful decision to embark on a dangerous quest to search for a way to keep her alive.
Melissa needs sunshine and clean air to survive.
Worse yet, his beloved friend grows seriously ill. But just days before Christmas, a canopy of darkness covers the skies, ash blankets the ground, and the land seems to wither and die. Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Rd.Season, a bright-eyed, golden dog of mixed breed, is best friends with his master's little girl, Melissa. Although not mentioned in the book, Season hopefully has more quests in his future.įans of animal tales will gobble up this tale of a dog who loves his girl and ends up saving the world." Any link to Christmas, a holiday mentioned several times in the story, is overwhelmed by the general, world-saving nature of Season's journey. The fitting conclusion should leave readers of all ages satisfied. Readers may feel blindsided by the revelation that his quest has been engineered by divine forces at war, but this sudden turn infuses the novel with new life, converting the story from a standard quest into a more fantasy-oriented trek.
Have you never felt like that? That there is a purpose for you, and that only you can fulfill it?" The plot features dangerous wildlife-snakes, bats, wolves, etc.-and harsh natural elements until Season faces his final confrontation, at which point the author introduces mystical forces disguised as humans and a perplexing resolution to the quest. In smooth prose interwoven with the right amount of explication, the story follows Season through the forest as he befriends a kind but underappreciated mule, then faces danger, trickery and death.Įxplaining the meaning of his quest, Season says: "It is my purpose. In the opening scene (before one of several flashback), readers land smack in the middle of a confrontation between Season and a snarling pack of wolves. In other words, Pollard's debut starts out by rewriting the standard quest story, this time with a dog in the starring role.
So, being the plucky pup he is, Season leaves his cozy home and braves the wild forest in an attempt to clear the skies, though he has no knowledge of how to do so. Season the dog's world upends when ash clouds the atmosphere and threatens the life of Melissa, his beloved owner's little girl. "In this holiday novel for middle graders, a dog's quest to save his master's daughter becomes a journey to save the world.
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