Review Detail

4.5 1

My Someone: A Pet Adoption Story

Kids Fiction 360

Heartwarming Book about Pet Adoption

March 14, 2026 (Updated: June 06, 2026)

Overall rating

4.8

Plot

4.0

Characters

5.0

Writing Style

5.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

A small, scruffy, yellow dog is shown out alone in the world, enduring a hard life. She is scared, hungry, and alone, and wants desperately to find her "someone". When she is found and take to an animal rescue, she doesn't like the grooming or the shots, and is not a fan of the bow on her head! When a little boy and his mother take her home, she likes the warmth and quiet of the home. Food and playing ball are great, but she does not like her tail pulled. Fortunately, rolling in the grass makes up for the little boy's momentarily lapse in judgement. Snuggled up in her dog bed at night, she feels safe, but also lonely. She drags her blanket to the little boy's room, and the last picture shows the two sleeping comfortably together.

Good Points

What an absolutely charming book! I have a soft spot for a good rescue dog tale, since I now adopt older dogs who need homes, and the dog in this book looks very much like my Leo! The watercolor and ink illustrations do a great job of showing both the horrible conditions at first, with the picture of the dog in the rain making me feel very damp and cold, but also feel warm and cozy when the dog is at the boy's home. The facial expressions are fantastic; I'd love to see this dog playing with Melling's Ruffles! Young readers will giggle a bit at the dog's reactions to getting a bath and having her nails clipped, and there is a great opportunity to talk about how to treat pets when the boy pulls the dog's tail.

This has just the right amount of words for a read aloud, and I can see this becoming a fast favorite; just be careful about reading it too many times if you DON'T want to adopt a dog! While not in rhyme, this has a good rhythm, and reads aloud very smoothly. I read it to my dog several times!
There are a good number of books about rescue dogs that have been published, but some of my favorites are Thompson's A Family for Louie, Boelts and Walker's Before You Were Mine, Cummings' Can I Be Your Dog?, Jones' Perdue, and Guojing's wordless picture book, Stormy: A Story about Finding a Forever Home.