National Network for Equitable Library Service

The time is the early 1980s. Judith Plant and her new partner, Kip, are ready for a change.

Some human lives can be measured in dogs. Writer/musician John Armstrong is such a person, and in A Series of Dogs, he takes the measure of his own, now at nine dogs' lives and counting.

Here's what you need to know about Phineas L. MacGuire, boy-scientist extraordinaire, a.k.a. Mac:

1. He's allergic to purple, telephone calls, and girls, and can prove it.

When Cass's estranged grandmother unexpectedly leaves her house and savings to Cass and her mom, it is just the thing they need to change their lives.