  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 09/01/2014 Gr 4–7—Twelve-year-old Jax and her family live in the last house on a mountain road in a small town tucked into New York's Catskill Mountains. Higher up the slope sits an abandoned structure of unknown origins that local legend claims is haunted and has hidden rooms. One day, Jax finds a beautiful dog, without tags, sitting near her driveway. She brings him home to shelter him until his owners are found. Later that night, while looking out her window, Jax's gaze is drawn to a light coming from the mountaintop, and she realizes it's from the abandoned building. Jax, an experienced hiker, and the dog she's named Mo-Mo, head up the mountain to investigate. They find a Buddhist monk and his student, who have traveled from Tibet to reopen the monastery. So begins a mystery where the purpose of the building and its contents are revealed. The result is an "East meets West" adventure with the concepts of Buddhism entwined into prophesy, symbolism, a lost artifact, art thieves, and a protective dog. Jax is an intelligent, self-reliant girl, so the frequent anxieties of her overprotective mother come across as unnecessary and do not move the plot forward. A conversation toward the end of book concerning the impact of the Chinese takeover of Tibet feels awkward and hastily included. Still, middle grade readers with a penchant for mysteries and multicultural experiences will enjoy this.—Sharon Lawler, Texas Bluebonnet Award Committee, San Antonio, TX - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 11/15/2014 Kimmel blends Buddhist wisdom and Tibetan magic into a girl-and-her-dog tale set in the Catskills. Jax, 12, instantly bonds instantly with the huge, collarless Tibetan mastiff that appears at her family’s rustic home. Shortly thereafter, she meets Jampa Rinpoche, an old Tibetan monk, and Yeshi, a friendly Tibetan boy her age; the two have moved into a long-abandoned monastery nearby both to renovate it and to look for a missing ancient statue. Jax’s fascination with the Tibetans and their beliefs is complicated by a tempestuous relationship with her fearful mother, who is still emotionally traumatized by the near-fatal accident to Jax’s little sister a year before. Ultimately, the arrival of a wild storm kicks off a suspenseful climax, in which Jax, the dog, the Tibetans and some unexpected allies—including, perhaps, a demon—take on the bad guys. Afterward, Jax and her mother have an air-clearing heart-to-heart talk, and (dog-story lovers take note) after a brief disappearance, the mastiff returns to make the resolution as tidy as it is upbeat. - Copyright 2014 Booklist. Loading...
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