For the Love of Benji

by Joe Camp and I.F. Love

Book Overview

Book tie in to the movie For The Love Of Benji This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 0553136925
• ISBN13: 9780553136920
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A good read that doesn't quite capture all the film's magic

I. F. Love wrote this novelization of For the Love of Benji, the second of Joe Camp's wonderful Benji feature films. This time around, Benji finds himself an unwilling pawn in a high stakes game of espionage and intrigue. The Chapman family vacation in Greece turns out to be a taxing time indeed for America's favorite little mutt. First, he's drugged and has something tattooed on his paw, then he finds himself lost and alone half a world away from home. Desperate to find his family in this new and unsettling environment, Benji also has to deal with a set of bad guys trying to nab and/or kill him, avoid several bullets (and every Benji lover knows how much Benji hates guns), evade a number of car chases, find food and water, escape the jaws of a vicious Doberman, and basically just survive and keep searching without losing hope. It is a wonderful, action-packed story that doesn't play quite as well in book form as it does in the movie itself. All of the extended chase scenes seem to come and go too quickly in this novelization, robbing the reader of some of the suspense that the film builds in a truly powerful way. One must see all of Benji's ordeals in order to connect completely on an emotional level with the story. The book also can't come close to capturing the depth of emotion, rational thinking, and truly remarkable courage of this special dog who refuses to give up in his efforts to find his family. I. F. Love does a great job summarizing the events that take place in the movie, and this is actually a very good book that many a child should love reading, but in this case the true magic of Benji can only be experienced to the fullest degree by watching the film.