With this companion, Applegate picks up where her Newbery Medal winner left off, and fans will be overjoyed to ride along in the head of lovable, self-deprecating Bob on his storm-tossed adventure. In the storm’s aftermath, Bob proves to everyone (and finally himself) that there is a big heart in that tiny chest…and a brave one too. Due to an early betrayal, Bob doesn’t trust humans (most humans are good only for their thumbs) he fears he’s going soft living with Julia, and he’s certain he is a Bad Dog-as in “not a good representative of my species.” On a visit to the zoo with a storm threatening, Bob accidentally falls into the gorilla enclosure just as a tornado strikes. Happily, her father works at Wildworld Zoological Park and Sanctuary, the zoo where Bob’s two best friends, Ivan the gorilla and Ruby the elephant, live, so Bob gets to visit and catch up with them regularly. Wisecracking Bob, who is a little bit Chihuahua among other things, now lives with his girl, Julia, and her parents.

Tiny, sassy Bob the dog, friend of The One and Only Ivan (2012), returns to tell his tale. Hidden throughout this moving novel in verse, old stories are discovered like buried treasures. As early spring turns to summer and Malsum makes himself part of the family, she turns these stories into a school presentation, a process that helps her realize that, like her grandparents and the big dog, she’s “a rez dog too.”

She finds that even when she’s hearing one again, there’s “always / something in that story / that was more.” Her grandfather tells her “that all the old stories / are so alive / that even when you hear / one of them again, / that story may decide / to show you / something new.” Bruchac (Abenaki) tenderly braids traditional Wabanaki stories and, via Malian’s family history, stories of atrocities visited on Native nations into Malian’s lockdown experience. “When a dog like / that just appears / and chooses you, / it’s not your decision.” Although Malian misses her parents in Boston and online classes are difficult due to the poor internet connection, her grandparents entertain her with stories. They name him Malsum, meaning “wolf,” and he makes himself at home. “Four-eyed dog,” her grandmother calls him.

A big dog with two white spots over his eyes shows up at their house on the reservation.

Malian’s winter stay with her grandparents is extended when everything is locked down. When a Penacook girl and her grandparents must shelter in place at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, a large dog mysteriously appears to protect them.

Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac