Halsey's Pride

by Lynn Hall

Thirteen-year-old March, an epileptic, comes to live with her dog breeder father and through her growing attachment to her father's prize dog, Pride, learns a great deal about love, truth, courage and how to cope with adverse fate.

119 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 1990

About the author

Lynn Hall was the author of over fifty novels for juvenile and young adult readers, as well as over two dozen novels for younger readers. Her books focus on coming-of-age stories featuring dogs and horses.

Reviews

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a bad feeling at the end of the first chapter, and then gave up after the first puppy died. It was inevitable -- it was a small puppy farm in 1955 or 1956. Dog breeding at that time relied heavily on inbred animals. The father also bought many dogs very quickly, and stuck them all in the same building.

Hall states that torsion in rough collies is genetic. This was the theory in 1990, but not really true, because collies are more prone to torsion due to their conformation. So, that plot twist was unbelievable. Just using a regular contagious illness to wipe out young stock would've been more believable. Or a fucking fire, or flood ... but the plot was stupid and horritic.

I love dogs, but usually avoid reading dog stories because dogs are abused, suffer and die all over the place. I really can't handle this shit anymore.

So, why did I try this dog story? I never read the blurbs or short descriptions of books, because usually they reveal spoilers. I choose just by title, cover image, Library of Congress classification, and author. I've read many of Lynn Hall's horse books, and one non-animal book about a boy in the early 1970s accused of being gay ... which was basically a death sentence back then. Anyway, those books were predominantly very good, so I thought I'd try one of Hall's dog books.

Big mistake.