Ark

by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

Overview

"None of us is likely to forget the 'virustime,' but feisty, funny, resourceful, creative Arden (along with her quirky family and motley crew of rescue dogs) is a comforting and inspiring reminder that the worst of times can bring out the best in us. Ark will help young readers see how they, too, kindled their own light to find their way through a dark time."
—Lauren Wolk, author of Echo Mountain

"Infectiously hopeful."—Kirkus Reviews

Arden thinks the world has ended when her parents decide to trade their large house (where she has her own purple bedroom with a window seat!) for a small backyard guesthouse, built like a wooden boat. The worst part: it’s not big enough for their dog to come along. Things get even worse when her best friend moves away and a pandemic shuts school, leaving Arden’s family quarantined in very little space. Arden just wishes life would go back to normal.

As neighbors leave town, shut themselves away, and get sick, their pets are left behind, and Arden becomes the safe-keeper of all the abandoned animals. When the pandemic touches home, Arden must use all her creativity and courage to help those she loves—family, friends, and dogs!

Ark was inspired by author Elisabeth Sharp McKetta’s experience of living in a 275-square-foot tiny house with her husband and two children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like Arden, Elisabeth’s family learned to live large in a small space.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589881792
Publisher:	Dry, Paul Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/29/2023
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta is the author of thirteen books including She Never Told Me About the Ocean and Awake with Asashoryu, both published by Paul Dry Books, and Edit Your Life, published by Penguin Random House. She and her family used to live in a backyard tiny house in Boise, Idaho, like Arden and Martin; now they live in an ordinary house.

Read an Excerpt

“A house becomes a home”

Nearly all of my friends agreed that moving houses when you’re a kid is pretty much the end of the world. Except for my best friend, Farah.

Farah said I would survive it. She said a house becomes a home when you have a dog in it, and that as long as we still had a dog, it would all be okay. Farah always says this kind of thing, and because I have known her for half my life, I am used to it.

We first met in the kitchen of my old house at a party for all the first-grade families to meet before school. The other kids looked nervous and clung to their mothers’ hands, but not Farah. She walked into our house with a smile—in fact, she led her family in: her bearlike, shy-looking father, her tiny serious mother, who was holding her baby brother, who is Martin’s age. She was the happiest person I had ever seen, and that was why I wanted to be her friend.

She loved that we had two dogs, and she and I spent the whole party on the floor with them. I never even showed her my room. When it was time to go, her mother said, “Oh Farah,” when she saw the yellow dog-hair all over her dress and socks.

My mother said: “Can we organize a date to get these girls together again?”

And Farah and I knew our fate was sealed. We would be best friends forever, girls who love animals, girls who spend parties on the floor petting dogs.

Since then, Farah has been my everything-friend.

What was happening around us never mattered, for we had each other. She never ever got upset. Farah was the friend I told when Woody our yellow lab died and I missed school because I was crying too hard. She came over after school and we hugged Tulip, our dog who was still alive, and she told me the story of when her aunt died and somehow hearing that made me feel better, not worse.

But there were three things Farah could not get me to feel better about: three losses that punched holes in my life the February I turned eleven.

 

“What about Tulip?”

When my parents told us we would be moving, and moving to a house so very small, I said, “What about Tulip? How will she fit? A dog can’t live in so little space. We can’t even fit her dog bed! I guess that means she can sleep with me…?”

Mom and Dad looked at each other in that awful secret suspicious way that means bad news. Then Dad said, “Aunt Les has agreed to share her with us.”

“WHAT!” I yelled.

“We’re not a yelling family,” Mom reminded me.

“What?” I said more quietly.

“We are gone all day,” Dad started in. “You and Martin at school, Mom and me at work, and in the winter, she’ll be cold in the yard. So Tulip will live with us in the warm half of the year and with Les in the winter. But we promise that all summer when you’re home from school, she’ll be with us.”

“And Aunt Les comes to visit, like, every day!” Martin said. Martin thinks every idea is fine, and this is why we all used to call him Buddha Baby. I gave him a glare—small enough that my parents didn’t notice, but big enough to quiet his annoying optimism.

I felt like it was a bad joke. I was waiting for someone to say, “April Fool!” But it was February. I felt like a February fool. I could not speak, I was just listening while they took apart my life.

“She’ll be our part-time dog,” my mother said. “It won’t be the same, but…”

And I interrupted: “That is not the same. That is so, so, so not the same. Now excuse me. I have a call to make.”

Editorial Reviews

"None of us is likely to forget the 'virustime,' but feisty, funny, resourceful, creative Arden (along with her quirky family and motley crew of rescue dogs) is a comforting and inspiring reminder that the worst of times can bring out the best in us. Ark will help young readers see how they, too, kindled their own light to find their way through a dark time."
—Lauren Wolk, author of Echo Mountain

"Infectiously hopeful."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Elisabeth Sharp McKetta’s powerful novel Ark serves as a reminder that 'home is where your animals are.'"
―Foreword Reviews

"In this unforgettable, charming story, every reader will sympathize with Arden, who endures the loss of her best friend, her dog, and a home she adores. As the world becomes uncertain outside her new tiny house because of a virus, Arden's loneliness and frustration are palpable through Elisabeth McKetta's straight-forward, yet poetic style. In Ark, Elisabeth McKetta has conjured a unique family and a girl whom the reader longs to hug and befriend all the way to the end." 
—Michelle Lee, author of Between the Lighthouse and You

“I loved this thoughtful page-turner. Heroine Arden—loving, plucky, and cranky often enough to ring 100% true—and her family charmed and enlightened me. I zipped through her story the first time, but I’ll return with a sharp pencil handy to better note the many wise passages."
—Ellen Airgood, author of Prairie Evers

"Ark will inspire all who read it but especially middle graders who need something to hold on to when the world suddenly changes course. Beautiful and heartfelt, Ark is a lifeboat to sing in when any storm comes along.”
—Mary Sullivan Walsh, author of High

From the Publisher

2023-05-24
Arden isn’t happy that her family traded their big house for a tiny one.

Her parents recently downsized for personal fulfillment and career flexibility, and the lack of space means Arden’s dog will live half the time with her aunt. Then her best friend announces she’s moving from Idaho to Massachusetts. More difficult changes occur when the pandemic hits and Arden’s family is locked down in the limited space 24/7. Eleven-year-old Arden’s big sulks upset them all, and she realizes she isn’t the only one affected: Her 5-year-old brother is stressed too, her parents lose their jobs, family members get sick, and abandoned dogs roam the streets. Narrated by Arden, the story captures the rapid changes and uncertainty people felt during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the virus the characters are dealing with is not named, readers will recognize the descriptions of quiet streets, social isolation, and constant worries about health, safety, and loved ones. The challenges are recognizable but not extreme—Arden struggles but admirably develops a coping strategy, taking control of the only thing she can, as she starts rescuing and caring for stray dogs, giving them their own little backyard house to sleep in. By extension, she learns to recognize the needs of others and be there for them, and as the months pass, she sees a brighter future and redefines the meaning of home. Main characters read White; Arden’s best friend emigrated from Syria.

Infectiously hopeful. (readers’ guide) (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews