Poochie A tale of friendship with a tail

Poochie: A Tale of Love With a Tail by Sharon Alexander is indeed a tale of love, but not just with a dog. Heavy with biographical details, Poochie is the story of three principal characters, the author, her mother and their adopted stray Poochie. Living in underprivileged circumstances with a single mother, Poochie describes the author’s attachment with the eponymous dog.

Poochie touches upon many serious subjects. It talks about poverty, mental health problems and unpleasant family relationships. In this story, Alexander also builds in the importance of being responsible pet owners. All these are important but difficult themes for children.

This book is suitable for children who are independent readers but still need beautiful illustrations to keep their attention on the page. The sameness of the story, written like a narrative essay, is explained at the end in the About the Author section where Alexander says that she’d written the book for a school project in 7th grade. Nonetheless, it is a happy and hopeful tale of the lives of three characters and ends on a joyful note. It is refreshing to read a book set in the Caribbean and the beautiful illustrations of Mary Kusumkali Biswas bring Poochie’s story to life.