“You’d have to be nuts to trust a magician.”

From Paul Griffin’s When Friendship Followed Me Home.

Ben, a science fiction loving book lover, is used to keeping his head down to avoid the bullies in his life, but since he’s an outsider, his plan often fails. When Ben saves a small stray dog from a fight with a cat, he doesn’t think much of the encounter until the little dog follows him home. With his adoptive mom’s permission, the odd-but-devoted little dog soon becomes part of their little family, and it soon leads to Ben meeting the unique, colorful, and beautiful Halley, who is fighting cancer. Ben names the dog Flip at Halley’s suggestion and he begins training the dog to be a Read with Rufus program at the public library where Halley’s mom works. However, when tragedy strikes, Ben finds himself an orphan again and he moves in with his clean freak Aunt Jeannie and gruff Uncle Leo. While Ben tries to complete the Read with Rufus certification and work on writing a novella with Halley, he finds himself more and more at odds with Leo. When things come to a head with Leo, Ben and Flip are without a safe home until Halley’s parents open their home. While Ben loves living with Halley’s family, he struggles to see himself in the same light that Halley and Flip do, and it threatens to throw him completely off balance.

Reminiscent at times to Spinelli’s Stargirl and Green’s The Fault in Our Stars at others, Griffin manages to create a story that is full of both humor and heartbreak. The main character’s life is full of hardships, but he tackles each challenge with a genuineness that will appeal to readers. When Friendship Followed Me Home uses the loving dedication from odd, little dog to draw readers in to an interesting and unique story that is unforgettably moving.