Gooseberry

Robin Gow’s Gooseberry is a moving middle-grade novel about a young nonbinary person searching for family and finding it with a sweet rescue dog.

B has lived with so many different foster families and youth programs that they have to invent nicknames for them to keep track. Their parents died in a car accident when they were four, and they’ve been moved around ever since. And even though some foster families don’t really get B or why they haven’t picked a new name yet (though B has been grappling with that for a while), B tries their best to stay positive. They try to keep a list of names that might fit, and they dream of being able to live in a home where they could adopt a dog and teach him all sorts of tricks. So when they meet Gooseberry, they know they have to adopt him and give him a loving home.

But training a dog isn’t as easy as B first suspected. Gooseberry is anxious and barely even wants to let B pet him. But the queer couple B is staying with, Eri and Jodie, help them to adopt Gooseberry and start training him. Even when Gooseberry snaps and growls, B doesn’t give up. But is this new home enough to change things for good for B and Gooseberry?

Moving, heartwarming, and full of hope, Gooseberry is a friendship story classic in the making!