Dog Walker

by Karen Spafford-Fitz

Book Overview

Turk needs cash, but he's allergic to his own sweat, so getting a job is out of the question.

Then Turk makes an important discovery: Girls love dogs. And Turk's friends will do anything to meet girls. So Turk starts a dog walking business. His friends walk the dogs and Turk collects half the money. In an attempt to impress dog-loving Carly, Turk brags about his business in front of the school tough guy, Chuck. But when...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1459833643
• ISBN13: 9781459833647
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.4"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Attention Dog Lovers

Reviewed by Christian Gauvin (age 11) for Reader Views (8/07) "Dog Walker" is a story about a boy and his friends, dogs, and girls. Turk (the boy) has to walk his dad's boss' dog after his parents take care of her all night. When he meets up with his friend Leo, two girls come up and tell him how cute the dog is. After that he decides to open a dog-walking business to meet girls and make cash. He meets with his friends and they join the business too. There are two rules. No one can tell anyone about the business and Turk gets half the money. Since no one wants to walk the ugly or super wild dogs, Turk gets stuck with them. When he's on a walk, he meets a girl named Carly that he has known since the fourth-grade. She tells him that she's going away for the weekend and she asks him to look after her dog. He says ok, but then the next day he realizes that one of his workers is sick and everyone else is busy. Then he decides that he and his best friend can take care of three dogs at his place. When he comes back with one of the dogs, he realizes that someone took the dog that Carly owns when he was supposed to take care of him. Then he takes one of the dogs with him and goes out to find the dog. After an hour or two of searching, he gives up. Does he ever find Carly's dog? I'll let you figure out what happens next when you read "Dog Walker," which is a very good book that I would suggest to kids ten and up who like dogs. It is also good for kids that don't like very big books because it only has about 100 pages.

Great Young Adult Books

I love the ORCA books for my young adult readers that are reading below grade level. Content is appropriate to their age group and always a good story. This one is especially good.

What do you get when you mix boys, dogs, and girls?

Turk's mom reads parenting magazines. Turk's mom loves their suggestions. Turk's mom insists on family nights and moments otherwise known as "quality time." In Canadian author Karen Spafford-Fitz's debut novel Dog Walker, Turk, otherwise known as Winston Turkington, is broke and allergic to his own sweat. His parents want him to -- gasp -- earn his money and he finds himself walking a dog. Turk discovers a new cash flow equation: dogs plus girls equal new opportunity. Realization: cash is on the way. Once he's got the girl, the cash, and a growing new business, Spafford-Fitz flips the table on her young protagonist and spins his life out of control. Before you know it, Turk's dog-walking dating service gets complicated. Walkers are sick; boys fight over dogs and girls. Worse, Turk brags and spills everything to Chuck, the swaggering, most obnoxious guy in school, who then bullies his way into Turk's business. Soon Turk's new-found love life is upside down. While this fast-paced, dialogue-filled romp is a delight for all dog lovers, any reader will enjoy Turk's quick-thinking solution that has him racing to keep the dog and the girl. Dog Walker is ideal for middle-grade readers ages 10-14.