By Bill Cochran
Mike and his dog Corky promise to be best friends forever; when Corky gets sick and dies, Mike's first feeling isn't grief but anger at the dog for breaking the plan.
Mike and Corky have a plan. They worked it out together, and it's very specific and completely serious, the way a boy and a dog are serious: best friends forever, no matter what. The first half of the book is that friendship, and it's happy — Corky shaking hands, Corky fetching, Corky sleeping on Mike's head. Then Corky gets sick, fast, and dies at the vet. Mike cries. And then Mike gets angry, and this is the part most pet books skip: he isn't angry at death, he's angry at Corky. Corky promised. Corky broke the plan. He's done with that dog. His mom doesn't tell him it's nobody's fault. She asks whether he remembers the handshake, the fetching, the sleeping on his head. Mike finds he can't stop remembering. In the end Corky does stay with him after all, through those memories, even if that isn't how the plan was supposed to go.
Most pet books are about sadness. This one is about anger, and that's why I'd keep it. Some children make real promises to their animals — out loud, with terms — and when the animal dies, what they feel first may not be grief but a sense of being let down, and that can be hard to admit. Mike says it out loud, and nobody tells him he's wrong to. The book also spends real time on the good years before it spends any on the death, so your child gets to enjoy the dog first. And the ending doesn't cheat: nobody says Corky is in a better place, nobody says he's coming back. Mike's mom just points him back at his own memories and lets him get there himself.