By Jasmine Warga
A heartbroken rescue dog and a grieving orphaned cheetah cub become each other's way back to trusting again.
Finnegan is a rescue dog whose last owner called him a bad dog and chased him off; he'd been living rough and got injured out on his own. Chase is a cheetah cub whose mother has died, and she has to learn all over again to let the people caring for her come close. When the zoo needs Chase calm and confident enough to join its education program for children, someone has the odd idea of bringing in the wary rescue dog to sit with her. It's inspired by real friendships between animals at zoos around the country.
Warga tells this from inside the animals' feelings, so a child feels Chase's fear and Finnegan's shame without a word of it explained. Its quiet accomplishment is holding grief and healing in one story: two broken-hearted creatures who mend each other, with the sadness always pointed toward comfort rather than left to sit. Short, illustrated, and built around that single warm idea, it makes a lovely read-aloud and an easy one for an animal-loving child to fall into alone.