Three Dog Winter

by Elizabeth Van Steenwyk

Sled-dog racing means everything to Scott McClure. It also helps keep his father's memory alive. Scott plans to form a new team of three sled dogs so that he can continue racing and become a champion like his dad. But life changes quickly when his mother remarries and they move from California to Montana. From the start, Scott has problems with his stepfather and his stepbrother, Brad. Scott won't let anything interfere with his dreams as he trains and races Kaylah, his Malamute, and the other dogs on the team. But Scott doesn't know the obstacles he must face.

Genres: Fiction, Animals

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk is the award-winning author of more than seventy published books for young people. After graduating from Knox College, she went on to spend ten years writing for radio and television with a concentration on children's programming. She lives in California.

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

very heart warming

[Ryss Corbett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this book so many times from my school library, by the 20 something time I tried to check it out again my librarian went "AGAIN!?!" And got me a new book off the shelf to read instead lol

[Silod · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a favourite when I was a kid, but it's a bit rough reading it as an adult.
Overall, it's a pretty good story and I will admit that I did get choked up a couple of times. It's sensitive subject matter, to be sure.

Scott McClure's father died less than a year ago and his mother has already re-married. She moves Scott and his younger sister, Caroline, from Truckee to rural Montana to live with her new husband, David Hartfield, and his sons, Brad and Howdy.
We come into the story on Scott's first morning in the Hartfield house and, while Scott's main focus throughout the book is on keeping his father's memory alive by pushing forward with their shared passion for sled dog racing, the story is really about his coming to grips with losing his father and gaining new family by marriage. The racing and the dogs are largely used as a metaphor - different dogs come into the family under various circumstances; the dogs get injured or into fights, roughly reflecting the drama between the human characters; there are a number of different references to how a family needs to "pull together"; etc.
To a lesser extent, Scott struggles with other relationships - accidentally befriending his new school's group of social outcasts; trying to sort out his feelings for Michelle, whom he doesn't particularly want to be friends with most of the time whereas everyone else calls her his girlfriend; and mentioning several times how much he misses his friend Jamie, though he never has any correspondence with Jamie that we get to see.
Mainly, though, Scott frets over David's role as his new father and tensions with Brad.
While Scott trains up the dogs for a race in Billings, Brad privately plans to meet up with his mother while attending the race and to leave from there to live with her. The extent of the arrangement is unknown until after the race, when Brad returns to the group seemingly without having seen her. Back at home the next day, they find that Brad has gone missing. Scott reveals Brad's thwarted plans to the rest of the family and explains that he believes Brad has run away to an abandoned cabin in the mountain pass overlooking the farm - a place he strongly associates with his mother. A snowstorm is blowing in and, while David hurries to their nearest neighbour to borrow a snowmobile, Scott hitches up the dogs and runs them up into the mountains to try and reach Brad before hypothermia claims him.
The book ends with Scott finding Brad barely alive and getting the dogs to lie around him to keep him warm. In a heartfelt moment, as they hear a snowmobile gradually buzzing into earshot, Scott tells Brad that Dad is coming, acknowledging David for the first time as his father.

As I said, it's a bit rough reading it now. The pace drags a bit while it's also really difficult to keep track of how much actual time is passing in the story and there's a little repetition throughout. I cannot say, for instance, how many times the reader is reminded that everyone's jackets are kept on a peg by the back door.
There is also a glaring typo on page 137 that I remember somewhat fondly as probably my first-ever discovered typo in a published work when I was a kid. As they are discussing Brad's disappearance, "Mr. Bradley walked to the window and stared out of it while everyone watched and waited." Obviously, it should read "Mr. Hartfield", but even today it gave me pause.

Mostly, though, it was just kind of painful to read the way a bad movie is painful to watch.
I wouldn't say that the characters, their circumstances, or their behaviour were even unrealistic, just very unpleasant to behold.
For one thing, David and Margaret push VERY hard at the kids. Scott mentions in the beginning that he has known Brad less than twenty-four hours, which is pretty insane when you think about it. That means that, for however long David and Margaret were dating, they NEVER introduced their kids. It also means that there was no wedding to speak of or any other opportunity for any of the kids to come to grips with what was happening. They were just suddenly thrown together, knowing as little about each other as we know about them at the beginning of the book. In spite of this, there is consistent pressure from the start for Scott to think of David as his father and of Brad and Howdy as his brothers, as well as for Scott and Brad to be friends. David and Margaret show no sympathy for the fact that the kids must be homesick, that they are still grieving the loss of their father, that they have been uprooted and moved to a new town and new school, and that they are now living amongst strangers. Additionally, it is abundantly clear that Brad could use some support regarding his parents' divorce.
For another thing, it's frustrating to watch Scott and Brad constantly posturing and bickering over nothing. Like I said, it's not especially unrealistic for them to go from somewhat getting along to shouting at each other in a matter of seconds, but it's not fun to read, either.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the first novel I've read ! Ever :)
My mother brought me to the bookstore and I picked this book.
Must have read it almost ten times when I was young.