‘Pet-Friendly Francie’ by Kat E. Erikson is an utterly charming tale of young Francie and her remarkable adopted dog Scrimmy. Gently humorous and touching, Pet-Friendly Francie is an entertaining story for children that is compassionate and fun to read. I especially liked how clever Francie is and the pleasant temperament of here dog Scrimmy. All good relationships have that in common.
The story follows Francie Waggit and her family. France wants to have a dog but her father never agrees to that, one day they meet a stray dog at a 49ers game, who grabs everyones attention by taking the ball from the players and Francie’s father agrees to give Scrimmy (the name Francie gives to that dog) a trial period. There are a lot of fun hi-jinx throughout and all the characters are extremely loveable, specially Scrimmy. The writing is really easy to read, which is a great aspect of any children's book. The book teaches a lot of lessons which can be learnt throughout the book.
The book covered the absence of Francie’s mother for 4 months, who is working abroad, and how the family dealt with it and the feelings about it. It also covers the fact that the family had to make sacrifices (renting out the top floor of the house) to be able to live the way that made them happy and do the things they wanted to do as well as working hard.
The book covers not just lessons about dogs and wolves and their behaviour, it also teaches a number of life lessons. Francie shows kindness and love for all animals and humans (diversity is covered) and how it is good to be nice, even if it's to a bully as they might have their own problems. All of this is fantastic and covered in such a way that a child can understand and learn from it while it all being a very fun story to both tell and read.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I felt connected to the story through out the whole book being a dog parent and lover myself. I almost cried when Scrimmy was lost and Francie couldn’t find him. And I could feel their happiness when they found him back. The behaviour of the dog was also depicted very accurately.
Aside from being a fun read, it evokes the peculiar passionate attachment between humans and their pets and the richness of life when the two harmonise.
The San Francisco cityscape and Francie's unusual family are also charmingly portrayed. The writing is upbeat and light-hearted, also being full of word play and puns. I can't think of a better book to delight a young reader with the playfulness of language and pets!
I especially liked was the representation of strong female role models. Francie is not only loving, compassionate, and an animal-lover, but she likely gets those traits from her mother, who is helping elephants in Africa. Kudos to the author for writing a girl character the way girls deserve to be written. I'm looking forward to seeing more from this author.
Highly recommended this book, specially to all the dog lovers.
ThankYou for reading,
Stay Happy. Stay Blessed :)
Harshita Sharma
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