Looking for True

<b>When two unlikely friends bond over shared compassion for a bereft but lovable dog, they learn what it truly means to find a sense of belonging and identity.</b><br><br>11-year-olds Gladys and Jude live in the same small rust belt town, and go to the same school, but they are definitely not friends. Gladys is a tiny, eccentric, walking dictionary who doesn’t hesitate to express herself, while Jude likes to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself. But they both agree that a new dog in the neighborhood is being mistreated by its owner.<br><br>Gladys would like to do something to help while Jude is more resigned to the situation until the dog (who Gladys has named True Blue) disappears. They hatch a plan to find her and once they do, realize they have a problem: Gladys’s father is allergic and Jude’s mother hates dogs. There is no way they can bring her home.<br><br>They hide True Blue in an abandoned house on the edge of town, but as their ties to the dog--and to one another--deepen, so does the impossibility of keeping such a big secret. Yet giving True up will break all three of their hearts.<br><i> </i><br><br>Told in alternating voices set in a small, rust-belt town, <i>True Blue</i> is a story about family, identity, and finding friends in unexpected places.<br><b> </b><br><b>A <i>Horn Book </i>Fanfare Title</b>