A Home for Goddesses and Dogs by Leslie Connor

This is a story of a young girl who has to grow up fast.  Her father has left them and her mother is sick.  She has a bad heart.  She works on creating happy memories for her daughter.  It works even if she is so sad after her mother's death.  She still has her goddesses in artwork.  Now if she could just get in the mood to do some more...

Katherine Tegen Books and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published February 25th.

Her mother's sister comes to collect her and her belongings and takes her back home.  She and her love, another woman, are living with an old man.  They keep the house clean, cook him meals and give him some company in return for rent free lodging.

Everyone in this house is an interesting character.  Eileen is jovial and loves her aunt.  The old man enjoys having a young one in the household.  But her troubles aren't over yet.

They adopt another dog and he's a handful.  He does his business in the house, tries to run off outside, and he's strong.  When he leads her down a trail in the woods, the neighbor threatens to shoot him for scaring his cows.  The fact that he is on the old man's land doesn't bother him but it bothers the women.

Then the dog has to have back surgery.  She can't have the neighbor bothering her dog when he comes home, so she peels out of the house after him with her aunts right behind her.  He gets the message to stay off their land.

Then her father comes to visit.  They talk a bit and then she asks him to go.  He goes.

When the dog comes home to keep healing, her family is complete again.  Her challenges aren't over but with her family and friends around her, she'll be OK.

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor

Perry is an unusual boy.  He's grown up inside a prison and he loves his life there.  He has his own room, he goes to school, he has lots of friends and his mother is there.  It's an odd situation but it's normal to him.  Until things change...

Katherine Tegen Books sent me an ARC of this book for review (thank you).  It's being published today.

The warden is Perry's guardian.  I really enjoyed reading about his friends he's made.  When he's pulled out of the prison and put into a foster home, he's very upset.  He feels physically ill from the loss of his mother's love and attention.  But he has no choice...

He decides he's going to make his class project about the people in the jail.  He'll only write the stories they wish to share with him.  He really wants his mother's story and he gets it, but he knows it's not the whole truth.

Perry is a very determined boy and he's learned a lot from the friends at the prison.  He keeps looking into his mother's case until he finds out what she's hiding.

The foster home he ends up in is the District Attorney's.  He's friends with the daughter but he doesn't like the man any better than she does.  A stepdad who thinks he knows everything doesn't sit well with them.  When Perry tests him, he finds the man is not looking at his mom's file after all.  He said he was, but he's not.  So Perry has to find a way to help her get her parole so they can be together again.

Joy and sorrow are mixed in this book but it's one that keeps you reading and makes you smile at the end.  Never give up.  You don't know what will work and what won't but doing something is better than quitting.  Look what that did for Perry!