Филлис Рейнольдс Нейлор4.7 Eleven-year-old Marty Preston loves to spend time up in the hills behind his home near Friendly, West Virginia. Sometimes he takes his .22 rifle to see what he can shoot, like some cans lined up on a rail fence. Other times he goes up early in the morning just to sit and watch the fox and deer. But one summer Sunday, Marty comes across something different on the road just past the old Shiloh schoolhouses -- a young beagle -- and the trouble begins.
What do you do when a dog you suspect is being mistreated runs away and comes to you? When it is someone else's dog? When the man who owns him has a gun? This is Marty's problem, and he finds it is one he has to face alone. When his solution gets too big for him to handle, things become more frightening still. Marty puts his courage on the line, and discovers in the process that it is not always easy to separate right from wrong. Sometimes, however, you do almost anything to save a dog.
That's the way Preston Scott would have described his all-American family. His parents seemed to have everything, including the ideal marriage. But then their perfect life started to unravel. Mr. and Mrs. Scott began to fight - vicious, hurtful, drawn-out battles that went on day after day. Finally one day Mrs. Scott moved out. And that's when Preston's nightmare began...
Now, three years later, Preston's dad is getting out of prison, and Preston is no closer to coming to terms with his feelings about him. Because how can you forgive your father for killing someone...when that someone was your mother?
Here is Preston's searing true story about upheaval, growth, faith ... and the power of love.
This unforgettable novel is a fictionalized account based on the words of the boy who experienced these events firsthand.
