The dog escaped one more time and was reluctantly returned to the Duke. Joe and his father took the dog back again. The next day, Lassie escaped again and was waiting for Joe at his school, as she was on every other school day. The Duke's hired hand came to retrieve Lassie and took her back to the Duke's kennel. Lassie escaped from the kennel and ran back home to Joe.

The Duke lived three miles away from Joe's family's home. Joe's father had lost his job in the coal mine, and the family was in dire need of the money gained from the sale of their dog.

Without telling Joe, his father sold Lassie to a Duke who had a kennel full of champion dogs. Susan Jeffers's delightful illustrations add even more emotional depth to the story because they depict the bond between Joe, the young protagonist, and Lassie, his family's champion dog. The story is touching, heartwrenching, and engaging all at the same time. When I saw it was an adaptation of Eric Knight's original short story from 1938 written by one of my favorite children's authors, Rosemary Wells, I knew I wanted to read it and share it here for Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Knight married and settled on a farm in Pennsylvania, where Lassie Come-Home was written and where the collie who inspired the book is buried.This book was the only Lassie book I could find on the shelf at our branch. After graduating from Cambridge Latin School in Massachusetts, Mr. He moved to the United States as a teenager. About the AuthorĮric Knight was born in 1897 in Yorkshire, England, the countryside that was the background for Lassie Come-Home. Across hundreds of miles and against staggering odds, Lassie rises to every occasion as she races back to her home.

Driven by natural instinct and an extraordinary love, Lassie escapes from her new owners and makes a perilous journey back to Greenall Bridge to reunite with Joe. Joe thinks there’s no chance he will ever see his best friend again. Then Joe’s family falls on hard times, and his father is forced to sell their prized collie to the Duke of Rudling. The pair are inseparable, from walks home from school together every afternoon to epic explorations of the Yorkshire countryside. Twelve-year-old Joe Carraclough can’t imagine life without his family’s dog and beloved friend, Lassie. Martin, bold pen-and-ink illustrations by Marguerite Kirmse, and a stunning new faux-leather bound package. A special collector’s edition celebrating the iconic origin story of our favorite collie with an introduction by New York Times-bestselling author Ann M.

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