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To Night Owl From Dogfish by [Holly Goldberg Sloan, Meg Wolitzer]

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Holly Goldberg Sloan

To Night Owl From Dogfish Kindle Edition

by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Author), Meg Wolitzer (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

284 ratings

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From two extraordinary authors comes a moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters.

Avery Bloom, who's bookish, intense, and afraid of many things, particularly deep water, lives in New York City. Bett Devlin, who's fearless, outgoing, and loves all animals as well as the ocean, lives in California. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and are both being raised by single, gay dads.

When their dads fall in love, Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same sleepaway camp. Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends--and possibly, one day, even sisters.

But things soon go off the rails for the girls (and for their dads too), and they find themselves on a summer adventure that neither of them could have predicted. Now that they can't imagine life without each other, will Bett and Avery (who sometimes call themselves Night Owl and Dogfish) figure out a way to be a family?

Reading age

9 - 12 years, from customers
Print length

303 pages
Language

English
Grade level

5 - 6
Lexile measure

0770
Publisher

Rocky Pond Books
Publication date

February 12, 2019
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Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
ISBN-13

978-0525553236
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Lucy Tan
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Holly Goldberg Sloan
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Holly Goldberg Sloan
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Acclaim for To Night Owl from Dogfish

A New York Time Editor's Choice
A Junior Library Guild 2019 Selection
An Amazon best book of the month for February 2019
#3 on the Indie Next list for spring 2019 for Independent Booksellers
A Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated Children's Book of 2019

"Built on a foundation of absurdity, coincidence and the occasional rather good one-liner, the novel manages the difficult balancing act of using increasingly ridiculous, and often funny, situations to drill home the idea that every close relationship takes hard work, particularly when things start going south." —New York Times

* "This is a convincing and heartwarming look into the experiences of female friendship . . . An imaginative and compelling middle-grade novel depicting modern friendships and modern families." —School Library Journal, starred review

“A sweet and amusing tale that celebrates diversity while reinforcing the power of love and the importance of family.” —Kirkus

“Written entirely in emails and letters, this laugh-out-loud novel showcases the collaborative skills of bestselling authors Sloan (Short) and Wolitzer (Bellzhar) . . . Featuring a dramatic climax and a host of surprising twists, the novel affirms that families conventional and unconventional are families just the same.” —Publishers Weekly

“Even if the target readership eschews email these days, they’ll be hard-pressed not to be laughing out loud at the witty, clever email and letter repartee among the girls, their dads, and the rest of the supporting cast . . . Alternately heartwarming and hilarious.” —Booklist

“The book’s affectionately satirical take on our twelve-year-old heroines and their approaches to life is funny, and the epistolary format is an engaging way into the girls’ personalities and defenses.” —BCCB

“While Bett and Avery’s non-stop comical high jinks prove entertaining, the girls symbolize a broader definition of family and experience real struggles . . . Educators and librarians seeking an interesting novel that promotes diversity and might appeal to reluctant readers will want to add this book to their shelves.” —VOYA

About the Author

Holly Goldberg Sloan was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and spent her childhood living in Holland; Istanbul, Turkey; Washington, DC; Berkeley, California; and Eugene, Oregon. After graduating from Wellesley College and spending some time as an advertising copywriter, she began writing family feature films, including Angels in the Outfield and Made in America. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Counting by 7s and Short, among other novels. Meg Wolitzer was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in the town of Syosset, on Long Island, and sold her first novel, Sleepwalking, while a senior in college. She is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels for adults, including The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Wife, and The Female Persuasion; the young adult novel Belzhar; and the middle-grade novel The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07DBQNHMH
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rocky Pond Books (February 12, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 12, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2948 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 303 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #231,160 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #31 in Children's Blended Families Books
- #123 in Children's Stepfamilies Books
- #1,020 in Children's Books on Friendship

Customer Reviews:
284 ratings

About the authors

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Meg Wolitzer
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Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife. Her new novel, The Female Persuasion, has been named a most-anticipated book of the year by Time Magazine, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, and more. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and lives in New York City.
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Holly Goldberg Sloan
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Holly Goldberg Sloan was born in Michigan and spent her childhood living in Holland, Turkey, Washington DC, Berkeley, California and Eugene, Oregon. She was the screenwriter on the Disney baseball film ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD, and she was the screenwriter and the Director on Disney's THE BIG GREEN. The mother of two sons, Holly lives with her husband, television writer and illustrator Gary Rosen, in Santa Monica, California. She has published six novels, including Counting By 7s, Short, I'll Be There and Appleblossom the Possum. Her books have appeared on over 44 state reading lists, and have won awards around the world.
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

5 star		72%
4 star		20%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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M/M Sexual content!!

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

Big DISLIKE! It is about a m/m relationship and how it's natural and should just be accepted. It's not appropriate for a 9 yo. I don't want my kids to be reading anything about sexuality at this age!

21 people found this helpful

Fun summer read

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

My son loved this modern-day camp tale. He remarked that it was nice to see the two dads angle because “some kids don’t have just a mom and dad or just have one parent.” He said it was an easy summer read and tgeblatout of how the girls communicate, vs a traditionally written book, made it different and fun to read.

He cleared this one pretty easily but said it was good for late elementary or middle school readers and he would “recommend to boys or girls.” He also said, “tell them that boys can get into this book too. It’s not all girly stuff.”

15 people found this helpful

A witty and progressive story with an incredibly creative writing style

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2019

Verified Purchase

This "book of letters" was so much fun for our 9-year old to read. The relationships and plot are top-notch. The language is fresh and accessible. There are many twists and turns and it was captivating through the end. The story is obviously about a family with gay parents, so if that makes you uncomfortable, this isn't the book for you. Otherwise, your young reader will be enlightened and entertained about a completely normal type of modern relationship.

10 people found this helpful

Not appropriate for most 9 year old kids.

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2019

Verified Purchase

Amazon picked this book as book of the month. Was sent to my 9 year old grandson along with another book. Totally not appropriate reading for the vast majority of kids who don’t live on the east or west coast. Canceling the book of month membership.

15 people found this helpful

Original Format Brings Surprises and Smiles to Readers

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

Sloan and Wolitzer' s novel about two extremely different girls brought together by sleuthing their parent's love life is unpredictable authentic and outright hilarious. I could put this novel down. Now I am trying to find just the right reader to recommend this creative novel. Wish I had written it! My writer friends will use this novel as exemplary prose for learning the craft of middle grade writing. Read TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH for a great read. I may just read it all over again, now, just as 'tween readers love to do. I am an adult who loves MG novels and everything Holly Goldberg Sloan writes.

10 people found this helpful

Not appropriate for young children

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2019

Verified Purchase

I am disappointed that this book was considered appropriate to send from the children’s book club for my 10 year old son. My son still has not learned about the birds and bees and this book is a story about gay dads. I feel he is too young to understand this type of book. I will need to cancel the book club and find more appropriate books on my own.

10 people found this helpful

Victoria Ichizli-Bartels

Brilliant, funny, inspiring, thoughtful, and timely

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2019

Verified Purchase

To Night Owl From Dogfish is an original, surprising, and fun book. It is also inspiring, empathic, and thoughtful. I think it should be read both by adults and children (in schools as well).
I loved how the authors addressed the challenges and fear children face when the family situation changes drastically, and a parent either leaves or a new person enters.
Night Owl From Dogfish is a very timely book covering many essential topics, also diversity and inclusion. And the best thing about it, it is immensely fun to read.

6 people found this helpful

A fun read and , yeah, I cried just a bit

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

I know this for young people but I'm 70 and enjoyed what this book said + how it said it.

10 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

P M Buchan

Unlike anything my children had read before!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2019

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This is a novel that took us a long time to review! My ten-year-old son, who normally voraciously reads everything that Amazon offers us, could not get past the email format of this novel to enjoy it. I don't think he minded the concept, the multiple fathers, or anything else, but the structure of the emails back and forth really turned him off.

My eight-year-old daughter, however, finally relented and read this one with me, and enjoyed it a lot. I haven't seen Parent Trap so can't comment on comparisons there, but this felt like a very classic type of story, with familiar highs and lows, and it was a joy being with my daughter while she experienced it for the first time. She loved the characters, was fascinated by the idea of summer camp, and generally just couldn't get enough. So although this one took a while for us to warm to, we were very glad to have read it.

bf90er

Childrens LGBT The parent trap

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2020

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

My 11yr old fully enjoyed this.
Without giving too much of the storyline away it is basically The Parent Trap but with a few changes.
Bett is 12 and she finds out that her dad has a new boyfriend. Her dad wants her to make friends with the boyfriends daughter Avery so they going to send them both to summer camp so they can get to know each other.
So Bett decides to send emails to Avery so they get to know each other. They have nothing in common expect one thing to stop there dads becoming together. Through emails they come up with a plan that will surely break there parents up once and for all.
They soon become friends, but when they finally meet at summer camp things don't go as planned, do they want to go ahead with there plans to break up there parents?
My daughter fully enjoyed this book, the book has some laugh out moments and she loved how the 2 girls friendship developed throughout the story.
She was unsure at first because the full story is told in email format, so we get both narrative from both girls. However after a while she really got into the book.
Great LGBT kid friendly book.
Great read for confident readers age 10+

One person found this helpful

Claretta

Entertaining twist on The Parent Trap

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2019

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This book clearly owes a huge debt to The Parent Trap, but fortunately has a modern twist all of its own. The burgeoning friendship of Avery and Bett is nicely done, and the whole book - told entirely in emails and letters - sprints along entertainingly to a satisfactory conclusion.

My reservation about this book is that it has A Message (tolerance, equality etc) and, while I wholeheartedly agree with that, it’s sometimes conveyed with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. The two gay dads are so impossibly saintly and charming that it all felt unnecessarily preachy. Despite this quibble, this is a very enjoyable book and one which children of 8 and upwards would thoroughly enjoy.

One person found this helpful

elsie purdon

Surprisingly very enjoyable, a very Contemporary Parent Trap,

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2020

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Very much a novel of contemporary times the daughters of two Gay Dads are brought together by both being sent to Summer Camp, while the loved up Dads go on a Motorbike trip through China.
Very much an American novel, i.e. Summer Camp and so much more, this is a funny and engaging tale of the two twelve years olds who at first want to undermine their Dad’s attempts to pair them up and then well everything switches around.

Night Owl aka Brett Devlin can read her Dad’s emails and she contacts DogFish aka Avery Bloom to thwart their Dads’ intentions to pair them up as sisters! They haven’t even met. The Dad’s who are long distance lovers (New York and California) want to marry until the Road Trip in China throws up irreconilable differences in their characters that mean both men won’t even speak to each other by the time of their early return.

Brett and Avery meanwhile have become great friends and want to be the sisters the men had planned for.
What to do?

So much to enjoy in this book. Aimed at preteens or even young teens, I am a very mature granny and I loved reading it.

Strong characters pop up as the plot thickens! A long lost biological mom, and a grannie that becomes a professional stage actress being just two of them.

Friendships and relationships are explored form different perspectives and while this is very US based it will open up doors in any reader of the possibilities that are out there.

Written in the form of emails sent back and forth was no issue for me. It seemed very natural in this book.

Lesley70

Brilliant and Enjoyable Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 10, 2020

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

The Blurb - "Avery (Night Owl) is bookish, intense, likes to plan ahead, and is afraid of many things. Bett (Dogfish) is fearless, outgoing, and lives in the moment. What they have in common is that they are both twelve years old, and their dads are dating each other.

Bett and Avery are sent, against their will, to the same camp for the summer vacation. Their dads hope that they will find common ground and become friends – and possibly, one day, even sisters."

Of course things don't go quite to plan and that's what makes the story interesting.

This book is described all over the product page as The Parent Trap for a new generation - and that's quite a good summation but I think I like this book more than any of the films.

I love how you get an immediate sense of who the girls are on the first two pages from their first interaction with each other.

Bett - "you don't know me but I'm writing to you anyway... Your dad + my dad met 3 months ago in Chicago...THEY ARE NOW A COUPLE." She is a larger than life character who is a little intense and often speaks in CAPITALS. Her saddest two words are - "NO PETS".

Avery - "I think you are confused and have the wrong person." Avery is more bookish, has several phobias, anxiety and asthma and is just as intense in her own way. Her saddest two words are - "If only."

The saddest two words are very telling about their characters and it's interesting to see how the two girls grow, change and influence one another over the course of the story.

This is an epistolary novel - told through their various emails and texts to one another. Background details are filled in with emails between other characters. On the whole I thought this technique worked well, it gives you an excellent sense of what the characters are like and how they interact with each other. It would also be a good first epistolary story for someone to read as it's funny and overall has good plot pacing (though I did think the first part of the novel went on for just a little too long).

I really liked how, as well as the main plot, the story also looked at family relationships and what a modern family can be. I liked how Avery's mother came into the story and what she added to it, how she told her daughter to look for "what animates her soul". None of the themes felt forced everything felt like it had a place in the story.

Overall - I absolutely loved this and have no hesitation in recommending it.

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