I have to admit that when I realized the narrator of Dog Person by Camille Pagán was a dog, I moaned. Wasn’t that a thing we did for writing assignments in High School? But I kept reading and was glad I did. Harold is not just any dog. He’s a fourteen-year-old rescue who has not only lost Amelia May, his “person,” but has been left with an assignment: Make sure her husband finds love again. And maybe that the bookstore they had founded would survive.
So many things to love about this book. Set in fictitious West Haven, Michigan, (which seems and awful lot like non fictitious South Haven), the bookstore is the sort of place readers and booklovers adore. Harold is a familiar part of it, after all, booklovers tend to love dogs and cats, too. And Harold takes his work seriously, which isn’t easy for a fourteen-year-old who gets tired easily. Rather than feeling contrived, we completely accept Harold’s voice and his intuition.
The other characters are well drawn and authentic as well, but Harold is the star. I hope you love him as much as I did. Dog Person will be released April 7,2026, by Ballantine. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.
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