For Dog Lovers Everywhere

 For Dog Lovers Everywhere: <i>The Eyes of the Impossible<i>, by Dave Eggers and Shaun Harris

As a middle school student, I read and loved Old Yeller by Fred Gipson, but as a young adult White Fang (Jack London) changed my life.  Forever more I believed dogs could hear and understand much more than I ever realized. They certainly could communicate even without human language. 

The 2024 Newbery Award winning book  The Eyes of the Impossible,   by Dave Eggers opened my eyes to the beauty of animal communication among all the species. If you've ever watched a stand-off between a cat and a blue jay, you know what I mean. The cat squawls and expands, the bird chirps and dances and pokes her beak. Clearly, there is communication between two different species. The animals in Eggers' book share a beautiful community of all types and species from buffaloes to sea gulls. The main character is a dog who calls himself Johannes. He is the "EYES" of their animal community on an island probably off the coast of upper North America. There are plenty of humans too but they are minor characters in the story. Actually, they are the Villians who cause much concern for the protagonist Johannes and his friends. 


This is not a book about environmental reform. It isn't a tear-jerker book about animals dying for their masters. It is a book about a community of animals who take care of each other  through problem-solving and genuine concern for their neighbors---and that includes the nameless humans in the story. 

The book is especially unique with the use of award winning classical art borrowed from museums from around the world. Eggers and Shawn Harris have cleverly inserted original sketches of the dog into each of the master's artwork. The painting above (The Forrest Stream) is the work of Ruisdael and on display in the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. You can see our main character as he jumps the stream.

Make no mistake, the story is fascinating and well written for children in upper elementary through high school. It is especially interesting to see the world through the eyes of a dog. It was so realistic, it has permanently changed my perception of "What's Inside a Dog's Mind". There are a few vocabulary words that might stretch the reader a bit but worth the time looking it up on Google(trademark).


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