I first read and fell in love with this sweet story about a very good dog whose presence helps a town cope with their sadness when I was in 4th grade, and I decided to revisit it years later as an adult to see if it still touched me the same way.

This slice of life deals with abandonment, loss of loved ones, the struggle to make friends, the complicated feelings that come from being uprooted and moving to a new place, and the loneliness of old age in a way that's comforting and easy to understand. There is also brief discussion about the effects prison, war, and addiction have on a person. It's not too much for a child to process and it's a sweet kind of melancholy to read as an adult.