While trying to cope with more school work, including an assignment in her least favorite subject, reading, a sixth-grade girl faces her toughest challenge as her beloved dog--and lifelong companion--nears the end of his life.
After a car accident in the Adirondacks leaves her older sister Ivy brain-dead, seventeen-year-old Rose struggles with her grief and guilt as she slowly learns to let her sister go.
A little boy in a sheriff's hat and his dog deputy are bringing donuts home when the "Sheriff" is unable to resist getting rid of a slightly squished powdered donut, then wonders how everyone knows he ate it.