A review by triscuit807
Along Came a Dog by Meindert DeJong, Maurice Sendak

5.0

4.5-5 stars. "A stray dog earns a home for himself by protecting a little red hen and her chicks from a preying hawk." This description is 100% true, but it doesn't really describe the book. I'm not sure how sensitive readers would handle the events of the book. The little hen's toes have frozen off over the winter and she walks on the stumps of her feet. Because she is odd, the other chickens attack her over and over (yes, henpecked is a thing). There is a dog who is searching for a home (and a purpose) and, in spite of the man repeatedly driving him off and abandoning him, keeps returning to the barn and the chickens because he can sense there is kindness in the man. There is death in the story, but it's the death found in the farmyard. This is not a gentle read, but there is kindness in it just as there is kindness in the man. I have become a Meindert DeJong fan. I read this for my 2020 Reading Challenge (PopSugar "bird on cover"-rooster) and my Newbery Challenge (Honor 1959).