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Sharron was five when her father gave her the Friskative Dog. And just like the best-loved toys from The Velveteen Rabbit, Sharron has made the Friskative Dog real through her love and devotion.
Now Sharron is nine, and her father is missing, and the Friskative Dog is more necessary to her than ever. Her father walked out about a year ago and has been lost to her ever since. If he were a dog, he’d be able to find his way home, Sharron thinks. But people don’t have the same homing instincts as dogs. And you can’t train them to be true.
The Friskative Dog is about a young girl coming to accept that families can take all different shapes and sizes, and learning to live with hope and patience.
Susan Straight has written a spare, delicate story, rich in metaphor and meaning, and full of love.
Susan Straight, professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, has won the Gold Medal for Fiction from the San Francisco-based Commonwealth Club for her fifth novel, “Highwire Moon.” All her novels are set in the fictitious town of Rio Seco, a loose parallel to her hometown of Riverside, where she still lives.