What do you think?
Rate this book
Glory Be
Not yet published
Expected 10 Mar 26A girl searches for her lost dog and truths about her family in this heartwarming, poignant illustrated novel in verse from Jamie Sumner, the acclaimed author of Roll with It.
Disappeared. Vanished. Vamoosed.
Glory has the best dog in the world. Roux wags his tail so hard his whole round little body shakes. He touches his nose to hers like E.T. phoning home. Roux is always there for her—but now he’s gone. And Glory is worried her daddy had something to do with it.
Daddy’s been getting into trouble since the day Glory was born. Now it’s worse than worse. As she searches all over New Orleans for her lost pup, Glory discovers some things about her city and herself. Enough to make her How do you know when to hang on to the ones you love…and when to let go?
Disappeared. Vanished. Vamoosed.
Glory has the best dog in the world. Roux wags his tail so hard his whole round little body shakes. He touches his nose to hers like E.T. phoning home. Roux is always there for her—but now he’s gone. And Glory is worried her daddy had something to do with it.
Daddy’s been getting into trouble since the day Glory was born. Now it’s worse than worse. As she searches all over New Orleans for her lost pup, Glory discovers some things about her city and herself. Enough to make her How do you know when to hang on to the ones you love…and when to let go?
208 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication March 10, 2026
49 people want to read
About the author
Jamie Sumner
17 books343 followersJamie Sumner is the author of the critically-acclaimed middle-grade novels, Roll with It, Tune It Out, and One Kid's Trash. Her forth middle-grade novel The Summer of June hits shelves on May 31st, 2022 with Atheneum Books for Young Readers. She is also the author of the nonfiction parenting books, Eat, Sleep, Save the World and Unbound.
She has also written for the New York Times and the Washington Post as well as other publications. She loves stories that celebrate the grit and beauty in all kids. She and her family live in Nashville, Tennessee. Connect with her at Jamie-Sumner.com
She has also written for the New York Times and the Washington Post as well as other publications. She loves stories that celebrate the grit and beauty in all kids. She and her family live in Nashville, Tennessee. Connect with her at Jamie-Sumner.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 21, 2025
Jamie Sumner’s books for those in grades 4-7ish are really stacking up: the Roll With It trilogy, Maid for It, Schooled, Deep Water, One Kid’s Trash and others. Like her Deep Water, Glory Be is in the novel in verse format which tends to flow more lyrically and each word is carefully selected and generally produces a more emotional response. That certainly holds true for 9 year old Glory and her story of a lost dog, lost friend and a type of lost father. With the age of the main character and some of her school and friend interactions, the target audience for this one will skew a little younger and seems directed to strong 2nd grade readers through grade 4. However, the highly relatable scenarios of anguish over a missing pet and confusion over a dysfunctional parent may extend that range into grade 5, especially since her age is only mentioned once and the playtime activities between Mar and Glory that seem a little young are infrequent.
One of Sumner’s strengths as a writer is bringing together vivid characters with varied backgrounds. In this case, Glory lives in New Orleans in a working class neighborhood and money is always running short in her household and while Mar does receive an allowance that allows her to treat the two of them to a big bag of snack food and candy, neither family has much to spare. Even so, Mar’s large family of 7 presents as supportive and loving in direct contrast to Glory’s small family group of 3 with a father who disappears for lengths of time, spends more than he makes due to his gambling compulsion and is often drunk, loud and verbally abusive and whose physical violence towards Roux is responsible for his running off. Ernesto, who runs the tattoo parlor below Glory’s small apartment, plays a notable role in Glory’s search for her dog, Roux, and is a support to her mom when she finally chooses to have her drunken husband arrested and put a restraining order in place. Homeless and blind Seven has benefited from Glory’s mom and their trips to the community under the bridge with food drop offs and is someone Glory seeks out for help as she searches. Even a grumpy man living in angry isolation has an important part to play. Each are clearly developed and help form the sense of community that runs through the story.
A few things about Glory’s self-named “wild child” behavior did bother me a bit. Several times, she willfully disobeys her mother’s directives to stay home and ignores her grounding punishment. She slips out of her house in the middle of the night to go back to the overgrown and very isolated under the bridge area where Sal/Chef lives in squalor even though he has seemed a bit dangerous to her. Never mind he is more disheartened and sad than someone to be afraid of, what is a 9 year doing slipping out of her home and roaming the streets of New Orleans? And no consequences? Even if there was some punishment, it seems that Glory doesn’t pay much attention to any discipline that her principal, her obviously well-liked teacher Ms Roche or her mom inflict. Part of Glory’s conflicted thoughts about her father and his flaws and positives is her worry that she is destined to become like him since she looks so much like him and not so much her hard-working, loving and generous mother. Much of Glory’s behavior indicates she has little respect for rules and right behavior. A few indicators she is maturing and might be turning over a new leaf include her apology to the classmate she punched and a restored friendship with Mar a brief separation. Adults will be puzzled by the apparent disparity of Mom telling Glory she can’t go inside Ernesto’s tattoo parlor right below their apartment but doesn’t seem to be bothered by her going by herself to the homeless section of the city.
I highly recommended all of Sumner’s titles and for libraries with a fan following of her work, this one has a place on those shelves. If dog and owner type stories are in high demand, this one fills that bill, too. Text is free of profanity, sexual content and the only violence is Glory’s punch to the face of the classmate who deliberately flicks paint onto her poster of missing Roux. There is great diversity in characters-Glory and her parents are Caucasian, but best friend Mar plus Seven and Sal are illustrated as Black or at least dark-skinned. Certainly the location and economic level of the cast is different from most middle grade literature and may well represent many who do not feel recognized.
Thanks for the eARC, Edelweiss
One of Sumner’s strengths as a writer is bringing together vivid characters with varied backgrounds. In this case, Glory lives in New Orleans in a working class neighborhood and money is always running short in her household and while Mar does receive an allowance that allows her to treat the two of them to a big bag of snack food and candy, neither family has much to spare. Even so, Mar’s large family of 7 presents as supportive and loving in direct contrast to Glory’s small family group of 3 with a father who disappears for lengths of time, spends more than he makes due to his gambling compulsion and is often drunk, loud and verbally abusive and whose physical violence towards Roux is responsible for his running off. Ernesto, who runs the tattoo parlor below Glory’s small apartment, plays a notable role in Glory’s search for her dog, Roux, and is a support to her mom when she finally chooses to have her drunken husband arrested and put a restraining order in place. Homeless and blind Seven has benefited from Glory’s mom and their trips to the community under the bridge with food drop offs and is someone Glory seeks out for help as she searches. Even a grumpy man living in angry isolation has an important part to play. Each are clearly developed and help form the sense of community that runs through the story.
A few things about Glory’s self-named “wild child” behavior did bother me a bit. Several times, she willfully disobeys her mother’s directives to stay home and ignores her grounding punishment. She slips out of her house in the middle of the night to go back to the overgrown and very isolated under the bridge area where Sal/Chef lives in squalor even though he has seemed a bit dangerous to her. Never mind he is more disheartened and sad than someone to be afraid of, what is a 9 year doing slipping out of her home and roaming the streets of New Orleans? And no consequences? Even if there was some punishment, it seems that Glory doesn’t pay much attention to any discipline that her principal, her obviously well-liked teacher Ms Roche or her mom inflict. Part of Glory’s conflicted thoughts about her father and his flaws and positives is her worry that she is destined to become like him since she looks so much like him and not so much her hard-working, loving and generous mother. Much of Glory’s behavior indicates she has little respect for rules and right behavior. A few indicators she is maturing and might be turning over a new leaf include her apology to the classmate she punched and a restored friendship with Mar a brief separation. Adults will be puzzled by the apparent disparity of Mom telling Glory she can’t go inside Ernesto’s tattoo parlor right below their apartment but doesn’t seem to be bothered by her going by herself to the homeless section of the city.
I highly recommended all of Sumner’s titles and for libraries with a fan following of her work, this one has a place on those shelves. If dog and owner type stories are in high demand, this one fills that bill, too. Text is free of profanity, sexual content and the only violence is Glory’s punch to the face of the classmate who deliberately flicks paint onto her poster of missing Roux. There is great diversity in characters-Glory and her parents are Caucasian, but best friend Mar plus Seven and Sal are illustrated as Black or at least dark-skinned. Certainly the location and economic level of the cast is different from most middle grade literature and may well represent many who do not feel recognized.
Thanks for the eARC, Edelweiss
December 7, 2025
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus
**Spoilers relevant to determining audience.**
Nine-year-old Glory Be lives in New Orleans with her mother, who would like to earn a living making jewelry but has just taken a more remunerative job at a bank, her father, who has trouble holding a job, and her rescue dog Roux. Unfortunately, Roux has run away from home, and Glory is determined to find him. When she leaves school early in order to visit a homeless encampment to ask if anyone, especially Seven, has seen him, her mother is not happy because the school has called her and she has had to take time away from work. Even though Glory's family isn't particularly well off, she and her mother have visited the encampment before to hand out food and water, but her mother is not a fan of Glory going there on her own, or of her hanging out at the tattoo parlor downstairs from their apartment. Glory continues to look for the dog around town, but as she continues this process, details come out about her father's actions. He is frequently drunk, has anger management issues, and is not very reliable. When he returns with Roux, having found the dog with a neighbor, tensions in the family escalate and the mother ends up calling the police. It might be hard being away from her father, but in his current state, he was not a good person to have around.
Strengths: Sumner does a great job at portraying children in tenuous family circumstances in books like her Maid for It. Glory's New Orleans neighborhood is almost another character, and she feels comfortable roaming around alone, even if her mother isn't wild about the idea. I liked the fact that even though her mother would rather make jewelry, she recognizes that this isn't the most stable source of income, and does get a different job. It's also good to see her finally deal with the problematic father. I'm sure there are many nine year olds who would go to great lengths to find their own missing dogs. This is a novel in verse, and there are some illustrations, which is always good to see.
Weaknesses: While Glory is nine, her living situation, and the fact that her father kicks Roux, which is why he leaves, might make this book best suited to a slightly older audience, depending on your library population. Are there real people named Glory Be? There are at least two literary ones: Glory Bea in Bustard's Blue Skies, and Scattergood's titular Glory Be. I suspect that it is a Southern thing that I don't understand. At least it's not Lois Lowry's Sweet Ho(sanna) from her 1987 Rabble Starkey.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like novels in verse about children living in less than optimal situations, like Fipps' And Then Boom or LeZotte's Deer Run Home.
**Spoilers relevant to determining audience.**
Nine-year-old Glory Be lives in New Orleans with her mother, who would like to earn a living making jewelry but has just taken a more remunerative job at a bank, her father, who has trouble holding a job, and her rescue dog Roux. Unfortunately, Roux has run away from home, and Glory is determined to find him. When she leaves school early in order to visit a homeless encampment to ask if anyone, especially Seven, has seen him, her mother is not happy because the school has called her and she has had to take time away from work. Even though Glory's family isn't particularly well off, she and her mother have visited the encampment before to hand out food and water, but her mother is not a fan of Glory going there on her own, or of her hanging out at the tattoo parlor downstairs from their apartment. Glory continues to look for the dog around town, but as she continues this process, details come out about her father's actions. He is frequently drunk, has anger management issues, and is not very reliable. When he returns with Roux, having found the dog with a neighbor, tensions in the family escalate and the mother ends up calling the police. It might be hard being away from her father, but in his current state, he was not a good person to have around.
Strengths: Sumner does a great job at portraying children in tenuous family circumstances in books like her Maid for It. Glory's New Orleans neighborhood is almost another character, and she feels comfortable roaming around alone, even if her mother isn't wild about the idea. I liked the fact that even though her mother would rather make jewelry, she recognizes that this isn't the most stable source of income, and does get a different job. It's also good to see her finally deal with the problematic father. I'm sure there are many nine year olds who would go to great lengths to find their own missing dogs. This is a novel in verse, and there are some illustrations, which is always good to see.
Weaknesses: While Glory is nine, her living situation, and the fact that her father kicks Roux, which is why he leaves, might make this book best suited to a slightly older audience, depending on your library population. Are there real people named Glory Be? There are at least two literary ones: Glory Bea in Bustard's Blue Skies, and Scattergood's titular Glory Be. I suspect that it is a Southern thing that I don't understand. At least it's not Lois Lowry's Sweet Ho(sanna) from her 1987 Rabble Starkey.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like novels in verse about children living in less than optimal situations, like Fipps' And Then Boom or LeZotte's Deer Run Home.
December 10, 2025
3.5 stars!
I always adore a novel-in-verse, I always adore Jamie Sumner, and I always adore a Jamie Sumner novel-in-verse. Glory Be contrasts a typical Sumner book by following a younger heroine (age 9) as she searches for her missing dog, revealing her tumultuous relationship with her dad along the way. Glory skips school, wanders New Orleans at night, and interacts with the unhoused community all in her quest to find her beloved dog.
In some ways, this would be a GREAT introduction to the novel-in-verse format for third and fourth graders; it's not too long, the main character is around their age, and it includes some pictures. In classic Sumner format, Glory is a very dynamic character, and she does an incredible job portraying the setting as a character in and of itself. But there are also some grown themes; third and fourth graders may not understand the characters of Sal and Seven, and the super problematic ways Glory goes about solving her problem may get lost. I would recommend adults read this alongside their students to help answer questions.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atheneum Books for Young Readers for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
I always adore a novel-in-verse, I always adore Jamie Sumner, and I always adore a Jamie Sumner novel-in-verse. Glory Be contrasts a typical Sumner book by following a younger heroine (age 9) as she searches for her missing dog, revealing her tumultuous relationship with her dad along the way. Glory skips school, wanders New Orleans at night, and interacts with the unhoused community all in her quest to find her beloved dog.
In some ways, this would be a GREAT introduction to the novel-in-verse format for third and fourth graders; it's not too long, the main character is around their age, and it includes some pictures. In classic Sumner format, Glory is a very dynamic character, and she does an incredible job portraying the setting as a character in and of itself. But there are also some grown themes; third and fourth graders may not understand the characters of Sal and Seven, and the super problematic ways Glory goes about solving her problem may get lost. I would recommend adults read this alongside their students to help answer questions.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atheneum Books for Young Readers for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
In this latest Jamie Sumner novel-in-verse, Glory’s dog, Roux, has disappeared. She skips school, talks to some homeless people asking if they’ve seen Roux, and hung up missing posters. Come to find out, dad, who drinks and gambles, kicked Roux after he bit her dad. When Glory comes home she sees dad has ripped up some missing posters. He’s mad because she offered a reward for money they don’t have. Glory is realizing dad has anger issues along with drinking and gambling problems. Will she find Roux?
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
9yo Glory's dog Roux is missing. It is all she can think about. Her father has a drinking and gambling problem, and she is worried that he is somehow involved in Roux's disappearance.
This novel in verse is very dog forward. A child with a dog, or who has ever lost a dog, can easily relate to Glory's misguided plan to find Roux. Sumner's poetry is free verse, and at many times is visually expressive. I really enjoyed Glory Be.
This novel in verse is very dog forward. A child with a dog, or who has ever lost a dog, can easily relate to Glory's misguided plan to find Roux. Sumner's poetry is free verse, and at many times is visually expressive. I really enjoyed Glory Be.
July 19, 2025
EARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Glory’s dog is missing, and nothing will stop her from searching around town to find him. Her family situation makes things harder because of her father’s problems, but she meets people during her search that push her thinking about love, friendship, and difficult relationships.
Glory’s dog is missing, and nothing will stop her from searching around town to find him. Her family situation makes things harder because of her father’s problems, but she meets people during her search that push her thinking about love, friendship, and difficult relationships.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Jamie Sumner is a master at storytelling in verse and creating characters you feel you know. This one may be for the more mature middle grade reader with some heavy topics but Sumner knows the age group and how to write about sensitive topics. Lots of diversity in characters including race, economics, and living situations. With a New Orleans setting and a lost puppy, readers will have a hard time putting this down!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This was a “no bookmark” book! I sat down to read it and just melted into the beauty of the prose. There were moments where I forgot I was reading an upper elementary level book because I was so engrossed in the words and language. Must have for upper elementary and middle school shelves.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
While it is about a 9-year-old, the topics under discussion (homelessness, substance abuse, parental irresponsibility, gambling addiction) are too serious for 9-year-olds in my community. So I am suggesting this for middle school students.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews