Jack: The Christmas Collie

by Kevin L. Brett

This Christmas, the Barnes family will receive a gift that will teach them about life; about sacrifice and about giving. When the perfect Christmas Gift turns out to have a serious medical problem, the Barnes family relies on their faith to keep things in perspective. They find a way to turn a critical prognosis into a blessing. In true Collie tradition, Jack rescue a lost Boy Scout, chases off an intruder and saves the Barnes girls and the neighborhood from dangerous wildlife on more than one occasion. Jack seems to help most situations just by being there, but let’s not forget the never-ending mischief that this Collie brings to the Barnes home causing everyone to stay on their toes 24x7! Kevin Brett recreates the child-like enchantment and romance of the Collie stories of old with this delightful tale of a family and their Collie. Jack's herding abilities are put to good use with almost everything except sheep! Jack’s ancient wolf instincts serve him well, as he becomes the perfect addition to the Barnes family. Jack rollicks and romps his way through the Barnes's home and their lives, changing all of them in ways they had never expected. This Christmas, discover the gift that each of us carries inside, as a family learns that life is not as perfect as our dreams, but sometimes our dreams may come true in ways we might not ever imagine.

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2009

About the author

Kevin Brett has been owned by and loved Collies all his life. As a young child, his family had a humongous mahogany Collie named Macintosh. Later, in his teen years, his family had a sable and white Collie, named Piney Branch Lindsay Lad. His current Collie is a tri-color, named Captain Jack Sparrow. Kevin works with numerous Collie, Sheltie and dog rescues around the country helping them raise funds to further their rescue efforts. Numerous copies of Jack’s story have been sold by these rescues to help raise money to save these animals in need.

He is a certified enterprise architect who has led numerous DoD projects and a former member of the Space Shuttle/Spacelab Team. Kevin is also a certified martial arts instructor with twenty years of martial arts training and teaching experience. He has authored several martial arts books. Kevin is also an experienced outdoors-man and survival practitioner and a life-long Jazz Saxophonist!

He and his wife Lana were two of the five co-founders of the United Karate Institute of Self-Defense, Incorporated in Alexandria, Virginia. He has taught martial arts, self-defense combat classes to local law enforcement, military and federal agents, focusing on realistic and practical application of techniques, strategies and training methods.

He lives in Stafford, VA with his wife, three children and their mischievous Collie, Captain Jack Sparrow who is just “trouble with a tail.”

Reviews

[Tarissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a favorite, even though I was hoping to enjoy this story. The writing style was a bit stilted, not an easy flow to the reading. Overall it's a nice, sentimental tale of this family's Collie.

[Jina Howell-Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a simple but nice story about a family raising a Collie puppy. No big mystery or complex plot, but a lot of good information about the breed, which is near and dear to my heart.

The problem for me was that it was very preachy. The author seemed to preach and moralize to his children instead of listening to them, and that bugged me a lot. Also, although the author started out training the puppy, as a full-grown dog he seemed beyond the owners control. Although nearly everyone has behavior issues with their dogs at times, most of us don't publish books purporting to be an expert. There was a lot of overtly Christian stuff in it too, and I had not gleaned that from the synopsis. I know that's not a problem for many, but I like to be fore-warned.