This book stars Ellie, a very special dog with a very important purpose. From puppyhood, Ellie has been trained as a search-and-rescue dog. She can track down a lost child in a forest or an injured victim under a fallen building. She finds people. She saves them. It’s what she was meant to do.

When I found this book at the library and saw that sweet little dog’s face, I knew I just had to read this book.

You might remember reading about special service dogs in one of my past posts, ‘What the Dog Said’ by Randi Reisfeld. But Ellie helps people differently. Instead of being trained to help someone in a wheelchair, she’s trained to track down missing and injured people.

Dogs are amazing creatures, and you can teach them to do so many different things. The incredible thing about Ellie is how focused she is. When she’s searching for someone, there are all sorts of distractions around her; food smells, kids, other people’s smells, but she always stays on track.

This book is so well written that I really believed these were the thoughts of a dog. Throughout the book, Ellie senses how other people are feeling, whether sad, happy, frustrated, or afraid. I think dogs can sense how humans are feeling because my dog Dude always seems to know when I’m sad.