Jim Ugly
1992
- fiction
- mystery
- children's literature
- dogs -- fiction
- western stories
- dogs
- mystery and detective stories
- children's fiction
- dogs, fiction
- west (u.s.), fiction
The story
The adventures of twelve-year-old Jake and Jim Ugly, his father's part-mongrel, part-wolf dog, as they travel through the Old West trying to find out what really happened to Jake's actor father. Suggested level: primary, intermediate. From Google Books
What it’s like
A dry, sun-cracked Old West told in brisk, wry, plainspoken sentences, the kind of children's prose that moves quickly and trusts its reader. Think dusty trails, rattling wagons, river towns and rough saloons rendered in quick, vivid strokes rather than lingering description, with a sense of frontier heat and open distance. The vibe is brisk and lightly comic, an adventure with a steady undercurrent of worry, the mood of a good old-fashioned yarn read aloud by a fire. It suits an afternoon read, a long car ride, or a shared bedtime chapter with a younger reader. The pacing is fast and episodic, and the emotional core is a boy and his loyal, scruffy dog staying close through trouble, with a little mystery to pull the pages along. Intensity is low: there is peril and roughness, with frontier menace and a few tense confrontations, but no gore and little graphic violence, and nothing sexual. It is for young readers and adults who want a gentle, witty mystery with a loyal animal companion and a classic Western setting.
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