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    Hound Dog True
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    Hound Dog True
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    Hound Dog True
    Audiobook2 hours

    Hound Dog True

    Written by Linda Urban

    Narrated by Catherine Taber

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    Custodial Wisdom: Day Two
    Never use a metal ladder in an electrical storm. Bring an extra garbage can to the cafeteria on Turkey Drummettes day. Fix things before they get too big for fixing.

    Just one week until school starts. One week until Mattie Breen is the new girl again. One week until she has to introduce herself-to try and make friends. Unless she can convince her uncle Potluck, the school janitor, to take her on as a custodial apprentice. Then she'll be able to work with him at lunch and recess instead of needing to be with all the other fifth-graders. All she has to do is stick to the custodial wisdom she writes in her notebook.

    Too bad her notebook doesn't tell her what to do when that Quincy Sweet keeps popping up out of nowhere. Or how to talk to Mama about things that really matter. Or what to do when her carefully-thought-out apprentice plan comes crashing down around her. But maybe everything going wrong can begin to show Mattie what's right. About sharing a part of herself. About doing one small, brave thing. About making a friend she can trust with her secrets-a friend who is hound dog true.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 27, 2011
    ISBN9780307942449
    Author

    Linda Urban

    Linda Urban has written many award-winning books for young readers, including the novels Almost There and Almost Not, A Crooked Kind of Perfect, Hound Dog True, The Center of Everything, and Talk Santa to Me. For ten years, she served as marketing director at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, California. Currently, she teaches in the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has been visited by only one ghost, and he was not at all snooty. Visit her at LindaUrbanBooks.com.

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    Reviews for Hound Dog True

    3.5/5

    58 ratings10 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This book was not too appealing to me. It's about a young girl who struggles to make friends because she's always moving schools and she's very shy. Eventually she makes an acquaintance who ends up becoming a friend who is hound dog true. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone besides young girls with shyness issues.
    • 3/5
      Children's LiteratureMattie is a shy and imaginative soon-to-be fifth grader. After moving for the millionth time, she and her mother are staying with her Uncle Potluck, who is the custodian of what will be her new school. Nervous about beginning again with new peers and the anxiety-inducing social situation that is recess, Mattie devises a plan to learn everything she can from her uncle in order to become a Custodial Apprentice, so she will be able to spend her free time in his office instead of trying to make friends she will undoubtedly be expected to leave again. Her plans to avoid all social interaction are thwarted when the neighbor's niece, Quincy Sweet, comes to stay for the summer. The ups and downs that come from being in a new place are perfectly captured in Mattie's thoughts as she over analyzes every word and glance from others. An emotionally-charged story of relationships, confidence and getting over painful past experiences, the author captures each emotion clearly and makes it easy to relate to Mattie as the reader is brought directly into her thought process. Any child who struggles with the everyday pressure of self and peer acceptance will know what Mattie is going through. A read that is a quick, but far from simple, which will strike a chord in many young minds.
    • 5/5
      I truly wish that I had been able to read Hound Dog True as a child. Linda Urban's writing is sweet and refreshing, heartfelt and insightful - a book for all ages to read, experience and be inspired by.Mattie has one week to adjust before becoming the new kid in school again. She decides that maybe this time it won't be so bad if she can convince her Uncle Potluck, the custodian to her school, to let her become his apprentice in order to avoid any moments to where she would have to be forced to talk to her classmates. She is very observant and records all of their odd jobs in her notebook.Will her idea work?Then the neighbors niece comes into town for the week. Mattie's mother and Uncle would like them to be friends. But Mattie is awkward and doesn't know what to do with Quincy who looks to be older and outspoken, the complete opposite of what Mattie is.Will Mattie be able to trust Quincy to be her friend?Mattie's mother, although very loving and caring, is flighty and in denial. Her motto being "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." After getting some advice from Uncle Potluck, she decides that it is finally time for her and Mattie to stay put for once. That they weren't going to run anymore 'when the going gets tough'... Mattie doesn't agree at first. She is having a tough time adjusting and wants to get going... will they?Will Mattie stay "Hound Dog True"?It is a coming of age story of a painfully shy girl; a fifth grader who overcomes some of her fears by accepting what is, opening up and accepting how good things can be if she allows herself the opportunity.I truly recommend reading this book!
    • 2/5
      I thought this book was weird, but can't really put my finger on why I didn't like it more. A shy girl and her mother move back to her mother's hometown, where they live with two uncles -- one of them I kept forgetting about because he's hardly ever in the story, and the other one who is a custodian at the school the girl will attend in the fall.All the elements are pleasant enough, but they come together in strange ways. I know shy kids learning how to make friends is a common theme in literature, but this kid's shyness was borderline pathological, I was waiting for a deeper issue to emerge. Certain incidents seemed to be presented with a heavy import, and then never went anywhere.Grade: C-Recommended: Not really.
    • 3/5
      This book was nicely written, it just didn't grab me and make me want to keep reading.
    • 4/5
      Slight and subtle, I enjoyed this volume more than Urban's previous work. Mattie Mae is a wonderful character, and her worries are very relatable. I actually could have done with another fifty pages or so, but the story ended where it should have, so that's not a real complaint. Overall, very well done.
    • 4/5
      Children's fiction. Sweet story about a shy 10-11 year old girl trying to fit in. Linda Urban really brings the main characters to life (Mattie Mae and her "Director of the Custodial Arts" Uncle Potluck); the story is rich with the imagination of a 6th grader and sprinkled heavily with wonderful vocab--if he were in my family, Potluck would certainly be my favorite uncle as well.
    • 3/5
      The "lesson" wasn't very clear in this selection. My 5th graders were a little lost with the over all theme with this book. They understood her shyness and the cause of it, but the relationships and events between characters left if difficult to reach a conclusion of the theme of this novel.
    • 3/5
      This is a great story to recommend to those students that are shy or are introverts. They will really connect with Mattie Mae in this delightful story.
    • 3/5
      Cute book even though it may not go over here since it is Southern US.....Nothing offensive though.