about the book
I’m very smart. My littermates know I am top dog and I’m not afraid of the humans who come to see my mom. She is a German shepherd. My father is a shepherd too. My name is Ellie.
One very special dog. Ellie, explains that from the moment of her birth, she has an important purpose…to become a search and rescue dog.
One day, another human comes to the outside where we are playing. He makes a loud noise and tries to scare us. I am not scared. He covers me with a cloth but I squirm out right away. When he walks away, I follow. His name is Jacob and he takes me away to a new home.
There we play games and “work”. As I grow older, I understand the games are his way of teaching me to find people who need to be found. He teaches me to climb and to balance. He makes me comfortable in a harness and being lowered into dark scary places. It takes him a long time to teach me not to be afraid of water. I really don’t like water. It takes two years before I can do the work well. And then one day, he gives me away to Maya.
Now my job is even more important. The people who need to be found are not playing. We go to El Salvador where an earthquake has buried lots of people in crumbled buildings. I can find the people using my nose. Maya can’t fit in, but I can. It is very dangerous work, but helping these lost people isn’t my only purpose. I have to help Jacob and Maya too. They need me for reasons they might not even know…but I know. Like I said, I am a very smart dog.
about the author
Bruce Cameron is a very funny man. The “W” stands for William, but we’ll call him Bruce, just because that is what he seems to prefer.
In his website biography, a little truth is mixed with lots of humorous literary license. That’s all right. It is really funny. We know he was born in Petoskey, Michigan, in 1960, though he claims it might have been 1982. He also claims he was popular in school, a star athlete, and tried to kill his sister just a little!
While other boys wanted to be ball players, Bruce just wanted to be a writer. His first novel, written in fourth grade, was just 26 pages long. (His hand got tired.) Since he sold his first story to the Kansas City Star for fifty bucks when he was sixteen, he thought he knew everything and that college was totally a waste of time. Turns out he was wrong. He signed on to attend Westminster College, an all-male school. (Not his wisest decision!)
After graduating, to support his habitual writing, he drove an ambulance, repossessed cars, programmed computers, analyzed financial statements, and sold insurance, wine making equipment, and men’s clothing. Each morning at 4:30 am he’d get up to write. (He refers to these as his zombie years.)
In 1995 Bruce started an on-line column. This smash success led to a popular column in the Rocky Mountain News. One article “8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter,” was crazy popular so he turned it into a book. It hit the New York Times Bestseller list and sold out!
That led to all sorts of other humorous and heartwarming books, including several about dogs. Bruce really loves dogs. He even has one, a mutt named Tucker, who lives with Bruce and his wife, screenwriter and comedian Cathryn Michon, in Los Angeles, California. Besides achieving his dream goal of being a published author, Bruce continues writing a newspaper column, penning television and movie scripts, giving talks, and appearing on radio and television shows.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Writer’s Digest
Author biography: Wikipedia
Book trailer: Ellie’s Story
Also by W. Bruce Cameron:
Bailey’s Story : A Dog’s Purpose (A Dog’s Purpose, Book 2). Starscape. 2016.
read more!
Bailey’s Story : A Dog’s Purpose (A Dog’s Purpose, Book 2) by W. Bruce Cameron
Bailey, a rambunctious golden haired puppy, is much loved by his young owner, Ethan, and his very understanding parents. Bailey is just learning how to be a “good dog.” He has great adventures with Ethan during the summer, but when autumn arrives and the family is busy with work and school, Bailey is left on his own all day long. Let’s just say, Bailey has A LOT TO LEARN about being a GOOD dog!
One Dog and His Boy by Eva Ibbotson
All Hal wanted is a dog, but his mother and father say no every time he asks. Then, astonishingly, Hal is allowed to pick out a dog at Easy Pets for his tenth birthday. Fleck the terrier stands out immediately and Hal is overjoyed. But Easy Pets is a rent-a-pet agency—Fleck will have to be returned. Hal realizes that the only way he and Fleck could be together is to run away.
Racing in the Rain : My Life as a Dog by Garth Stein
Enzo, an elderly dog, is getting ready to die and he spends a great deal of time reminiscing about his life with a struggling race car driver, Denny. After losing his wife and battling her parents for custody of his daughter, Denny faces many setbacks. Enzo decides that when he dies, he’ll return to earth as a man, modeling his behavior after his beloved owner.