I took me 2 weeks to finish, which was a ridiculously long time for the level of difficulty.

I heard a lot about this book on Twitter last year, but I wasn’t as impressed. The story was entertaining and I know my dog-loving students will enjoy it, but I’m not positive they’ll be able to relate to it. Not that I know… I’m 38 years old… but I spend my day with 11 and 12 year olds, and I listen to their conversations. I believe the author really experienced the love and death of her pet dog, but the thinking and interactions of the characters seemed very far removed from the way young people think today. What I didn’t like about this book was that I didn’t feel it was authentic. It is good to have diverse characters so readers can gain understanding, compassion, and acceptance. One extremely short, one blind, one with a disorder leaving her with crutches, and one who isn’t disabled, but sad due to his mom leaving. What I liked about this book was that it brought in children with disabilities. Each chapter ends with a lesson that Maxi taught Timminy. Most importantly, Timminy has a best friend named Maxi, a Great Pyrenees puppy, who is wise beyond her years and teaches Timminy her many “secrets” to life. Maxi's Secrets: Test Questions Package (GR 3-6), by Lynn Plourde by Paper Dragon USA 5.25 PDF Every year Paper Dragon USA publishes a package of test questions for various state award book lists from which students read the books and then compete in book battles and other activities. He makes friends with a girl who is blind and several of her friends. He, however, makes it worse by not being able to laugh at himself. He starts at a new school where he is immediately bullied for his height. Timminy is an unusually short fifth grader who is new in a small town (moved from Portland, Maine). Maxi’s Secrets is about a dog and her boy, Timminy. Maxi’s Secrets (Or What You Can Learn From A Dog) (hardcover)

Maxi's Secrets by Lynn Plourde