Tupelo Rides the Rails


Posted on Jun 20, 2008
By Elizabeth Edwardsen

by Melissa Sweet

Published by Houghton Mifflin Co.

If you've ever adopted an animal and discovered that he or she fit in just right, you've discovered the magic of pet adoption. It's time to share it with your children, and there's no better introduction to the topic than the colorful, lyrical story Tupelo Rides the Rails by author and illustrator Melissa Sweet.

Tupelo Rides the Rails is the story of Tupelo, a black and white dog who is yearning for a bit of adventure but also a place and a person to call his own. His yearnings take him on a trip that will enthrall kids listening in their parents' laps (this book is fun to read aloud) and those who can read to themselves as Tupelo's dog buddies find their homes, one by one.

I won't spoil the ending here, but I will tell you not to worry, this is a children's book. And the award-winning Sweet (a New York Times pick for her last book, Carmine, a Little More Red) wouldn't leave your children or Tupelo in desperate straits. I will tell you that along with a sweet lesson about dog rescue, there's a more concrete one to be learned about Sirius the Dog Star (one I never knew) in Tupelo's pages.

The story is wonderfully illustrated, with watercolors of Tupelo's gang of "Boneheads" as his dog gang calls themselves, a highlight.

Parents and grandparents who have to read the same book over and over -- and over -- can grow tired of the same tale. Tupelo looks like a keeper to me.
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