The Dogs of Winter

by Bobbie Pyron

Overview

A small boy, a cruel city, and the incredible dogs who save him.Based on a true story!When Ivan's mother disappears, he's abandoned on the streets of Moscow, with little chance to make it through the harsh winter. But help comes in an unexpected form: Ivan is adopted by a pack of dogs, and the dogs quickly become more than just his street companions: They become his family. Soon Ivan, who used to love reading fairytales, is practically living in one, as he and his pack roam the city and countryside, using their wits to find food and shelter, dodging danger, begging for coins. But Ivan can't stay hidden from the world of people forever. When help is finally offered to him, will he be able to accept it? Will he even want to?A heart-pounding tale of survival and a moving look at what makes us human.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545469852
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	10/01/2012
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Lexile:	HL610L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Bobbie Pyron is the author of The Dogs of Winter, which received three starred reviews and was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of the Year. She grew up in Florida, now lives in Park City, Utah, and works as a librarian in Salt Lake City.

Read an Excerpt

From The Dogs of Winter

There was a hard day, a bitter cold day I sat huddled next to a steam grate in the sidewalk. The cold made my nose and eyes stream tears. I told myself they were not tears for my mother. They were not tears for the weeks it had been since I had slept in a bed and taken a bath. Perhaps it had been months or only days. I didn't know or care anymore. The tears were only for the cold. I bowed my head and rested it on my knees.

Something warm pressed against me. Warm breath stroked my cheek. I lifted my head. There beside me stood a large brown and black dog.

The dog sniffed my hair and ran his warm, wet nose across my cheek and ear. I held my breath. Did the dog think I was something to eat?

Satisfied, the dog curled up at my feet next to the steam vent with a sigh and closed his eyes.

We sat like that together, the dog and I. People rushed past us and around us and stepped over us. Coins dropped at my feet and in my hand. One coin, two coins.

I smiled at the dog. I reached out and touched his shoulder. "You've brought me luck today," I said. He licked my fingers. I laughed. "I'm going to call you Lucky...."

Editorial Reviews

Gr 6–10—A relentless darkness underlies this riveting story of courage and determination. Told as a recollection of a five-year-old boy in Russia, the story follows Mishka Ivan Andreovich from his relatively comfortable and loving home with his mother and grandmother to the lonely and frightening life on the streets of Moscow in post-Soviet Russia. The early chapters offer a dramatic counterpoint to the tragedy following his grandmother's death and the destruction of his mother's spirits and will to go on. When she disappears, Ivan is left with her abusive lover, who mistreats him and eventually takes him to an orphanage. Ivan escapes, and the rest of the book focuses on his brutal, frightening, unpredictable life on the streets. His astonishing resilience grows from his determination to find his mother and stay out of an orphanage. He finds refuge of a sort with a small but wise group of children living in sewers and underground stations and then breaks away to survive with a band of wandering dogs. It becomes his family, and he and the dogs protect one another. His gentle, timid nature erodes as he develops street smarts, cunning, and unwavering bravery. This is a captivating, important story based on the life of Ivan Mishukov, a Russian boy who lived a similar adventure. The author's note and extensive bibliography offer further insight into the underlying problems faced by Ivan and other children in Russia and around the world. Eva Hornung's Dog Boy (Viking, 2010) was also inspired by Mishukov's early life.—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ

School Library Journal

As she did in A Dog’s Way Home (2011), Pyron delivers a reflective, hard-hitting story about the bond between child and dog—in this case, seven of them. Inspired by the real-life story of a boy who survived on the streets of Moscow in the mid-1990s, the novel exposes the plight of many homeless, orphaned Russian children after the fall of the Soviet Union. Mishka—abandoned at age five by an abusive man who lived with (and presumably killed) Mishka’s mother—befriends a pack of bedraggled wild dogs; together, they beg and forage for food, sleep in metro stations, ride trains to stay warm, and avoid military personnel intent on capturing them. The book’s emotional impact is immense; Mishka grapples with his identity as his memories of his mother gradually fade and he becomes increasingly feral. Though some scenes of Mishka and the dogs’ trials can be a bit repetitive, their sameness underscores their unremitting and often heartbreaking battle to survive, day after day. Ages 10–14. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for THE DOGS OF WINTER

A KIRKUS REVIEWS Best Children's Book of 2012

*"Compelling and highly original fiction... An absorbing account." -- BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS, starred review

*"Terrifying, life-affirming and memorable." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review

*"Absorbing... The many vivid details of street life and the convincing portrayals of even minor characters help bring the story to life. A source bibliography is appended. Written with compassion as well as grim, sometimes brutal realism, this novel offers a riveting story as well as material for reflection and discussion." -- BOOKLIST, starred review

"Well-crafted sentences, lively dialogue, and a remarkable story line combine for an absorbing adventure tale that young readers will find irresistible." -- HORN BOOK

"Pyron delivers a reflective, hard-hitting story about the bond between child and dog.... The book's emotional impact is immense." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

From the Publisher

An orphaned boy in Russia survives as a member of a pack of dogs. Ivan is only 4 years old when he runs away to the streets of Moscow. At first, he is taken in by a scruffy group of children under one adult's control. They live in the subway stations, begging and stealing food. He soon befriends and is adopted by a small group of dogs and becomes one of them. They survive on the trains in the winter and in the forest during the summer. Ivan keeps a button belonging to his (probably dead) mother as a talisman and remembers the fairy tales she read to him. Increasingly, his time with the dogs provides nourishment for both his hungry belly and his soul. Threats are ever present in the form of police, gangs of teens and wild animals in the forest. Two years later he is captured, and after months of care, he regains his humanness. Pyron has based her story on magazine articles about a Russian feral child, one of hundreds of thousands whose lives were disrupted by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. She presents Ivan's story as a first-person narrative in beautifully composed writing enhanced by Ivan's visual acuity and depth of emotion. Terrifying, life-affirming and memorable. (author's note, bibliography) (Adventure. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews