Shimmerdogs

by Dianne Linden

*Shortlisted for the 2008 Governor General's Award for Children's Literature

*Shortlisted for the 2008 Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year Award

*One of 2009's Best Books for Kids & Teens (Canadian Children's Book Centre)

*Shortlisted for the 2009 Golden Eagle Book Award

*Shortlisted for the 2010 R. Ross Annett Award for Children's Literature (Alberta Literary Awards)

Shimmerdogs is the story of young Lester B. Hopkins - Mike to almost everyone except his mother, Master Corporal Alice Mackelwain. He is just a boy trying to make sense of his own world that is ever more complicated by the intrusion of the world of his absent soldiering mother.

Mike is very worried about his mother's safety while she is in Bosnia. He, like his sister, gets caught up in his mother's tragic stories like the one of a little boy named Edin, whose daily life includes the nightmares of the violence and terror of war. Mike wonders how to make sense of it all, how to step outside the fears he harbours and the unanswered questions he has.

Stumbling upon a book he finds in the library that describes the ancient belief that dogs guard the doorways to death, he begins to shape an understanding of his troubles. Wasn't he brought back to life by a shimmering white dog with "jewellery eyes" who saved him from drowning? The connections become more apparent when Mike's dog, Merit, disappears, and he reasons she is on some kind of peacekeeping mission like his mother. Then he meets Jozef Lapinski, an elderly neighbour who has his own miraculous dog story from World War II.

Genres: Canada

135 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Canadian Children's Book Centre]

Shimmerdogs – a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award – is the story of a boy’s need to be heard, to have his experiences and emotions acknowledged, and to be fully included in the life of his family. The novel by Dianne Linden is written in the voice of the very likable main character, seven-year-old Lester B. Hopkins (Mike). He struggles with a lot of change and loss as people come in and out of his life. When his mother goes to Bosnia to be a peacekeeper, Mike and his sister go to live with their uncle and have to go to a new school. He adopts a stray dog which later disappears. His mother tells him of a boy she meets in Bosnia – a boy Mike wants to befriend but who is later killed by a landmine. When Mike’s neighbour, the elderly Mr. Lapinski dies, things come to a crisis and Mike runs away. Although he is found relatively quickly, that isn’t the end of Mike’s difficulties. An intriguing aspect of the novel is the possibility that help comes in forms not always recognized – in this case, “shimmerdogs.” Mike reads a legend about them that says they were sent from the moon thousands of years ago to bring peace. Throughout the book, Mike finds “shimmerdogs” – some real and some seen only by him – to help him cope. A second thread in the story is the link between international peacekeeping and peacekeeping in everyday Canadian life when his sister has a fight with classmates. Shimmerdogs is suitable for the intended audience in terms of language and presentation. The book is divided into sections and each section is sub-divided into short, readable parts. The number of challenging experiences and deaths close to Mike may be overwhelming for some readers. Children who feel alone and frightened, however, may find some comfort in knowing others feel that too. It is a good book for parents to read. By the end of the book, the reader, with
Mike, learns that when help is needed it appears, sometimes in unexpected ways; that life goes on, despite change; and that the human spirit has the power to recover.

Reviewed by Rosaleen Egan in Canadian Children's Book News
Spring 2009 VOL.32 NO.2

[Holley Rubinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shimmerdogs is a very brave book for younger readers (although this adult loved it) that concerns mental illness as seen through the eyes of the affecting, sweet narrator. As in "On Fire", Linden's other book I've read, the magical is immersed in the real. In Shimmerdogs Linden investigates a child's loss through a dog that in the beginning of the story saved his life.