List $14.99

Written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor - Audio book performed by Peter MacNicol - Unabridged Fiction - COMPACT DISCS

Publisher, Listening Library (April 2004)

Recommended for Grades 3 - 5

Listen to an MP3 audio clip.

From Phyllis Reynolds Naylor comes this unabridged recording of her Newbery Award-winning tale of adventure, courage and love--the timeless and moving story of a dog in trouble and the young boy who would save him.

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 shoot cans from the 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 schoolhouse--a young beagle--and that's where the trouble begins.

What do you do when a dog you suspect is being mistreated runs away and comes to you? When the man who owns the dog has a gun? This is Marty's problem, and it is one he will have to face alone. Soon Marty will have to put his courage on the line, discovering in the process that it is not always easy to separate right from wrong. Sometimes, however, a boy will do almost anything to save a dog.

About the Author: “Through my books I can be many different people, living in many different places, and doing all kinds of interesting things. I can recapture feelings from childhood or project myself into the future. Or I can take a real problem I may be experiencing and work it out on paper. Writing, for me, is the best occupation I can think of and there is nothing in the world I would rather do.” —Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor has written more than 100 books. Her work has been honored by the American Library Association, the International Reading Association, and the Children’s Book Council.

Newbery Medalist Phyllis Reynolds Naylor grew up in Anderson, Indiana, and Joliet, Illinois. She wrote her first book when she was in kindergarten and sold her first story when she was 16 for $4.67.

Naylor worked as a teacher and an editor before she began to write full-time in 1960. Her first book, about a disastrous first marriage to a man who became mentally ill, was for adults. She sold her first book for children in 1965. Since then, she has written more than 80 books for children and adults.

Her book Boys in Control, features the return of young readers’ favorite feuding families—the Hatford boys and the Malloy girls—from her earlier books, The Boys Start the War, The Girls Get Even, and Boys Against Girls.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband, Rex who is a speech pathologist. They have two grown sons and two granddaughters.

“I think I wanted to be a writer because my parents read aloud to us every night until we were about 15 years old. They read Grimm’s fairy tales, the Bible storybook, all of Mark Twain’s books, Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows—and I think I probably felt that if listening to stories was so much fun, writing them would be even better. And it is. I love being involved in the characters and plot and just the whole mess of writing, it’s such a wonderful mess to me.

“I would like readers to develop more tolerance for people who are different, for ideas that are different, to come to realize that sometimes there isn’t just one right way to do something. People see different possibilities in a situation, and the solutions they come up with may be very different.”

About the Boy-Girl Battle Books

“It’s always fun for me to do another book in the Boy-Girl Battle Books series. I think I enjoy them as much as the kids, and according to the stacks of letters I receive, they like them a lot. The idea for the series came to me when I was speaking at a school, and as the kids filed noisily into the gym, one teacher yelled, ‘If you don’t settle down, I’m going to seat you boy/girl/boy/girl.’ The gym was so quiet you could hear nothing but breathing. ‘Aha!’ I thought. The universal theme! The antagonism between boys and girls, ages 9 to 12. In one chapter, the girls may be one up on the boys; in the next, the boys may have the upper hand. There will be 12 books in all, and already the kids are asking, ‘Who wins the war?’ My lips are sealed.”

AUTHOR FUN FACTS

Born: January 4, in Anderson, Indiana

Previous jobs: Third Grade Teacher, Editorial Assistant, Playground Supervisor

Hobbies: Snorkeling, Swimming, Piano, Theater, Reading

Favorite books: All kinds—scary, funny, serious. Mark Twain was her childhood favorite.

Favorite foods: Chocolate, Pizza

Favorite clothes to wear: Comfortable, colorful shirts and jeans

Favorite colors: Green and blue