Lassie Come-Home
Recommended. Age: 10+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
Lassie is a collie who loves a boy named Joe. Joe's father loses his job, and the family has to sell her. She is taken far away to Scotland. Lassie walks hundreds of miles to come home to Joe. It has some sad parts, and it is good for kids about ten and up. This is the original Lassie, and it is a warm story of loyalty and of a poor family that stays honest when honesty hurts. Joe's father makes him give the dog back because she now belongs to someone else. Nothing in the sources we fetched raises a concern. We found no Catholic review or curriculum placement, and the two content logs do not cover the book, so the content cells are blank.
For parents
Read aloud from about seven or eight. Independent reading from ten, which matches the ages 10 to 13 given by the EBSCO reference entry. No content log covers this book. The fetched sources mention a cruel kennel man who mistreats Lassie, and a reference entry says the book avoids brutal description. Ask: why does Joe's father make him take Lassie back when she runs home? Talk about the seventh commandment. Something we have sold belongs to someone else, even when we love it. Ask how the family treats each other when money is short. This is a good book for talking about the dignity of work and about trusting God when a parent has lost a job. At the end the father disguises the dog and the Duke plays along. Ask your child whether that was honest, and why the Duke chose to be kind. Ask what loyalty means, and who has been loyal to your child.