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37th out of 136 books
—
554 voters
Hound Dog True
by
Linda Urban
A story about small acts of courage from the author of A Crooked Kind of Perfect.
Do not let a mop sit overnight in water. Fix things before they get too big for fixing. Custodial wisdom: Mattie Breen writes it all down. She has just one week to convince Uncle Potluck to take her on as his custodial apprentice at Mitchell P. Anderson Elementary School. One week until school...more
Do not let a mop sit overnight in water. Fix things before they get too big for fixing. Custodial wisdom: Mattie Breen writes it all down. She has just one week to convince Uncle Potluck to take her on as his custodial apprentice at Mitchell P. Anderson Elementary School. One week until school...more
Hardcover, 160 pages
Published
September 20th 2011
by Harcourt Children's Books
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I stare at this blank screen, how to describe this book. Mattie and her mom have moved, again. This time they have moved in with her Uncle Potluck. While her mom seems a bit clueless as to who her daughter is, Uncle Potluck "gets" her. He is the janitor at the local elementary school and Mattie tags along with him while he prepares the building for a new school year. Uncle Potluck seems to one of those adults who has a bit of magic in him. He can spin an amazing story, speak to the moon, fix a d...more
Linda Urban has a gift for capturing the small things about a kid's life that matter. She understands that little things can mean everything...those tiny moments that the grown-ups shrug off can be something a ten-year-old carries around for years...and maybe forever.
HOUND DOG TRUE features Mattie Breen, a painfully shy girl who moves to a new town with her mom and apprentices herself to her Uncle Potluck, the school custodian, in the hopes that her studies of janitorial arts will allow her to...more
HOUND DOG TRUE features Mattie Breen, a painfully shy girl who moves to a new town with her mom and apprentices herself to her Uncle Potluck, the school custodian, in the hopes that her studies of janitorial arts will allow her to...more
One thing that Linda Urban always does well is creating characters that live and breathe. Mattie does that from page one. Mattie is a worrier and very shy to boot. She never seems to know what to say or when to say it, so starting over at another new school terrifies her. So she makes a plan. If she can be her Uncle Potluck's custodial apprentice she can avoid all the 'down' times when she would need to socialize with the other kids (recess, lunch, etc). She starts keeping notes about everything...more
Jan 21, 2013
Caroline
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
children-s-books,
books-i-ve-reviewed
Occasionally I come across a real winner while book shopping at Barnes and Noble. This is one of them.
Mattie Mae is socially awkward, but inside her brain there are important things stewing. They used to stew in a yellow notebook, but then along came Star, so now her notebook is filled with all of her Custodial Wisdom notes, collected from Uncle Potluck. Uncle Potluck has made her a temporary Custodial Apprentice, to take up the time between when she and her mother moved (again) to live with him...more
Mattie Mae is socially awkward, but inside her brain there are important things stewing. They used to stew in a yellow notebook, but then along came Star, so now her notebook is filled with all of her Custodial Wisdom notes, collected from Uncle Potluck. Uncle Potluck has made her a temporary Custodial Apprentice, to take up the time between when she and her mother moved (again) to live with him...more
Summary:
It’s just a few more days until Mattie Breen starts school in a new town. A few more days until she has to introduce herself again – and try to make new friends. Mattie’s not very keen on a fresh start.
She decides to spend her spare time helping her uncle Potluck, the school janitor. In her notebook Mattie writes all of the custodial wisdom she learns from uncle Potluck. She plans to convince him to take her on as his custodial apprentice when the school year starts. And she’ll be able t...more
It’s just a few more days until Mattie Breen starts school in a new town. A few more days until she has to introduce herself again – and try to make new friends. Mattie’s not very keen on a fresh start.
She decides to spend her spare time helping her uncle Potluck, the school janitor. In her notebook Mattie writes all of the custodial wisdom she learns from uncle Potluck. She plans to convince him to take her on as his custodial apprentice when the school year starts. And she’ll be able t...more
In "Hound Dog True", by Linda Urban, Mattie Breen has just moved and will soon be starting fifth grade at her fourth school. This year, though, it's at Mitchell P. Anderson Elementary School, where her Uncle Potluck is the janitor. Mattie has always been shy and reluctant to make friends, so she makes a plan to gather enough "custodial wisdom" in the week before school starts to become Uncle Potluck's custodial apprentice. She takes notes throughout the days and watches as Uncle Potluck fixes le...more
Darn it! Here's another book that I'm going to have to buy again. I bought it on audio and listened to it in the car today (had a long trip to take), and as I was listening I so wanted to be holding the book in my hand so I could see how it looked on a page. I wondered it Mattie's journal entries were shown like a page from a journal, and I wondered if Quincy's drawings of Poor Mo would be found adorning the pages.
Hound Dog True is a story of Mattie Bean, almost 5th grader, niece to Uncle Potluc...more
Hound Dog True is a story of Mattie Bean, almost 5th grader, niece to Uncle Potluc...more
It is almost time for school to start and Mattie Breen will once again by the new girl at school. Each time her mom finds herself uncomfortable with her job, she and Mattie pick up and move someplace else to start over. This time, however, they've moved in with Potluck, Mattie's uncle and the custodian at the school Mattie will attend.
Mattie dreads lunches and recesses without friends at school, but she could spend those times with Potluck is she could convince him to let her become his apprent...more
Mattie dreads lunches and recesses without friends at school, but she could spend those times with Potluck is she could convince him to let her become his apprent...more
Poor Hound Dog True. It was a perfectly fine story, but since the author made the mistake of writing A Crooked Kind of Perfect as her debut novel, nothing else she writes will EVER BE AS GOOD OMG CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT I LOVE YOU!!!!
So, um, yeah.
There was that.
I did like it, though! Almost-fifth-grader Mattie makes her fifth move in as many years to a school where her Uncle Potluck works as a janitor. Uncle Potluck talks like the dad from Big Fish, but Mattie’s still at the point where she love...more
So, um, yeah.
There was that.
I did like it, though! Almost-fifth-grader Mattie makes her fifth move in as many years to a school where her Uncle Potluck works as a janitor. Uncle Potluck talks like the dad from Big Fish, but Mattie’s still at the point where she love...more
While Linda Urban does a great job creating interesting kooky characters who can make changing a lightbulb, fixing a leaky faucet, or installing doorknobs fun; I found this book a tad boring. It does have some great themes about making friends, believing in yourself, and finding what you are good at in life. Problem is it takes awhile getting there and I found it slow in the beginning. Sweet, but slow. Mattie is painfully shy and likes to spend her time with Uncle Potluck, a funny man who is a c...more
Timid is too timid a word to describe shy, fearful Mattie. She is a person who keeps her own counsel, as her Uncle Potluck says. Her first reaction when approached by someone her age near her new home with Uncle Potluck is to sprint back into her house and hide behind a closed door. She'd much rather record her thoughts in her notebook than have to talk to anyone. And right now her thoughts are focused on learning everything about Potluck's job as custodian at her new school so she can convince...more
Linda Urban writes books that I just WISH had been written 25 years ago so I could have had the benefit of reading them when I was a child. Her characters are so genuine and her heroines remind me SO much of myself, especially as a young girl.
Mattie Breen is 10, has moved a lot, and is painfully shy. Initially, I thought the idea of a young girl wanting to apprentice her uncle as a school custodian in order to avoid lunch and recess was a little much, but I do remember how much I would have don...more
Mattie Breen is 10, has moved a lot, and is painfully shy. Initially, I thought the idea of a young girl wanting to apprentice her uncle as a school custodian in order to avoid lunch and recess was a little much, but I do remember how much I would have don...more
Mattie Mae is one of those charming, shy, sweet characters who waves up at you timidly from the pages and enchants you. She's awkward and unconfident of herself, eager to please and filled with button twisting angst that she'll never get it quite right or be quite good enough. When Uncle Potluck invites Mattie and her mother to come live with him for awhile, his calm and humorous personality offers the haven that Mattie craves. Can she dare to hope and dream that this time things might just work...more
Mattie never knows what to say, so she tries not to say anything at all. That's not so easy when you move a lot, and when every new teacher makes you stand up in front of the blackboard and introduce yourself. Once, Mattie was so nervous that she introduced herself as "Not a Buddhist." This time is a little better though; the school year hasn't started yet, and Mattie and her mother have moved in with Mattie's Uncle Potluck, the school custodian, and for the entire week before school starts, Mat...more
Once again, Mattie Breen and her mother have moved, and as a new school year approaches, Mattie dreads having to be the new girl in class once again. In order to avoid another painful introduction or try to find somewhere to eat during lunch, she has been following her Uncle Potluck around the school as he practices what he calls the Custodial Arts. She figures she'll just hang out with him or help him out. Mattie is quiet and shy, and prone to writing down her thoughts and creating stories in a...more
School Library Journal (October 1, 2011)
Gr 4-6-Mattie Breen is a self-conscious and sensitive child about to begin fifth grade in her fifth school. This time, she and her mother are back in her mother's girlhood home with Uncle Potluck, the "Director of Custodial Arts" at the school Mattie is slated to attend. She dreads the prospect of recesses and lunch times-any times where she might find herself in unpredictable social situations-so she devises a plan to become her uncle's invaluable assista...more
Gr 4-6-Mattie Breen is a self-conscious and sensitive child about to begin fifth grade in her fifth school. This time, she and her mother are back in her mother's girlhood home with Uncle Potluck, the "Director of Custodial Arts" at the school Mattie is slated to attend. She dreads the prospect of recesses and lunch times-any times where she might find herself in unpredictable social situations-so she devises a plan to become her uncle's invaluable assista...more
When Mattie is introduced to new people – which is often because she and her mother are always moving – she might be considered shy or even stuck up. She looks down and talks softly, if at all. After all, saying the right thing – the clever thing – is not easy. And Mattie knows that one word, one incorrect word, can be devastating.
Mattie is happy about the latest move. She and her mother will live with her Uncle Potluck while he recovers from an impending knee surgery. Mattie will begin school i...more
Mattie is happy about the latest move. She and her mother will live with her Uncle Potluck while he recovers from an impending knee surgery. Mattie will begin school i...more
The extremely shy Mattie and her mother have moved in with Mattie’s Uncle Potluck, who is a custodian at the school Mattie will be attending at the end of summer (one week away). When Uncle Potluck takes her with him to help prepare for the school’s reopening, Mattie begins writing down everything Potluck says about custodial work. Having been bullied at her previous school, she’s afraid of having to mingle with her fellow fifth graders. Mattie believes that if she can convince Uncle Potluck to...more
Mattie has been to five schools in as many years and is painfully shy. She dreads any sort of social situation, such as lunch or recess. This newest move is to the home where her mother grew up and is where we meet Uncle Potluck. Uncle Potluck is the head custodian of her new school and Mattie sees a way out of those uncomfortable social situations by becoming his “custodial apprentice.” Like Mattie, Uncle Potluck is a storyteller—only he actually tells his stories and Mattie simply writes them...more
Dec 15, 2011
Michael Scotto
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Michael by:
Colby Sharp
Shelves:
middle-grade
Such depth through such economy; not a single word is wasted or misplaced in this wonderful novel. I started it with a plan to read a few chapters and then go to sleep, and two hours later, I find myself not only having finished the whole book, but compelled to write about it lest it keep me up all night.
This is a small story about huge things. It spans not much time, and certainly not flashy in its plot or incident. But in Mattie, the protagonist, we witness such a stirring and true battle as s...more
This is a small story about huge things. It spans not much time, and certainly not flashy in its plot or incident. But in Mattie, the protagonist, we witness such a stirring and true battle as s...more
I finished this today, although for a short book, it took a long time. It is a wonderful story, and I've puzzled over my feelings about it as I read. In the first half of the book, I felt that Linda Urban injected such tension that I really worried about what was going to happen. There have been many books lately that held life-changing tragedies to cry over, and I kept imagining that Mattie as the young heroine of this story was going to experience something similar. She was already sad enough...more
Mattie's mom made them move again. This means new school, new introductions, and so much worry...unless Maddie can convince her uncle to let her help him with his school janitorial work.
You have to give this book a little time, just like Mattie. They both sneak up on you. After a bit you realize these quite little things are sweet and honest and true. Potluck's pretty great. Sometimes people enter into your life when you need them most. Mattie got lucky with her uncle and Quincy and her principa...more
You have to give this book a little time, just like Mattie. They both sneak up on you. After a bit you realize these quite little things are sweet and honest and true. Potluck's pretty great. Sometimes people enter into your life when you need them most. Mattie got lucky with her uncle and Quincy and her principa...more
Linda Urban's novel is lyrical, fresh, and refreshing - like a breeze in wind chimes on a summer day.
Mattie is a raw and loveable character, surrounded by an original and richly imagined cast.
Hound Dog True is the story of the week before Mattie starts fifth grade, a week that changes her life. I appreciated Urban's care in choosing her descriptions, her time frame, and her characters. Everything in the book is just right, in its place, like the tools in Uncle Potluck's Custodial Arts office.
I s...more
Mattie is a raw and loveable character, surrounded by an original and richly imagined cast.
Hound Dog True is the story of the week before Mattie starts fifth grade, a week that changes her life. I appreciated Urban's care in choosing her descriptions, her time frame, and her characters. Everything in the book is just right, in its place, like the tools in Uncle Potluck's Custodial Arts office.
I s...more
Linda Urban has followed A Crooked Kind Of Perfect with a sweet story. Mattie and her mom are living with Uncle Potluck. Mattie has lived many, many places- Mom says, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Right Mattie?" In Mattie's heart of hearts she knows, she is Not Tough. She is thrilled to live at Uncle Potluck's house and is waiting on pins and needles for things to get tough.
This story is a couple of weeks before school starts when Mattie is helping Potluck with his Custodial D...more
This story is a couple of weeks before school starts when Mattie is helping Potluck with his Custodial D...more
Mattie Breen and her mother have just moved again. They will be living in the mother's childhood home with Uncle Potluck. When the summer ends in a week Mattie will be starting at a another new school. After what happened at the last one Mattie isn't looking forward to it.
Mattie has been helping Uncle Potlock with his janitorial duties, at her soon to be school. Mitchell P Anderson Elementary. Mattie comes up with the perfect plan to avoid other students. She will become a custodial apprentice....more
Mattie has been helping Uncle Potlock with his janitorial duties, at her soon to be school. Mitchell P Anderson Elementary. Mattie comes up with the perfect plan to avoid other students. She will become a custodial apprentice....more
About the Book: Mattie and her mom have moved too many times for Mattie's liking. Mattie hoping that this time moving in with Uncle Potluck will last-no more being the new girl. Mattie has a week until school starts which means one week to convince Uncle Potluck to take her on as a custodial apprentice. If Mattie writes everything down in her notebook and can convince Uncle Potluck he needs her, she can work with him at recess-away from the other fifth-graders. But what will happen when Mattie's...more
I thought this book was weird, but can't really put my finger on why I didn't like it more. A shy girl and her mother move back to her mother's hometown, where they live with two uncles -- one of them I kept forgetting about because he's hardly ever in the story, and the other one who is a custodian at the school the girl will attend in the fall.
All the elements are pleasant enough, but they come together in strange ways. I know shy kids learning how to make friends is a common theme in literatu...more
All the elements are pleasant enough, but they come together in strange ways. I know shy kids learning how to make friends is a common theme in literatu...more
1 like · like · see review
This showed up on some recommendation list, but I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps this age group is too young for what I normally read, or maybe because I kept trying to figure out what was actually going on with Zoe, but I never really clicked with it. It could be a great book to give to an upper elementary student who is either pathologically shy or just moving to a new school. The characters around Zoe are especially delightful and wacky - her uncle especially. What happens to him at the end...more
Because I loved Crooked Kind of Perfect, I picked up Linda Urban's latest book Hound Dog True with happy anticipation. I wasn't disappointed! A shy girl, Mattie, helps her Uncle Potluck during the weeks before school starts, in the school she'll be attending--as a new student. Her uncle is the "Director of Custodial Arts," (and if writers want to see an example of "voice," read this book and listen to Uncle Potluck). Mattie hopes to become his assistant, and consequently spend time with him duri...more
This story goes right to the heart and as you learn more and more about this notebook-keeping young girl lost and her mother with piccolo fingers, it is such a ray of hope to see the support system that is there, particularly in Uncle Potluck, who is one of the most charming characters I've met in a book in a long time. His stories give wonderful insight and depth to the plotline and he is the focal point for all the small acts of bravery that other characters are able to try and succeed at. The...more
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This was from the About Me section at Linda Urban's website.
I was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in a suburban house that looked like all the others on my street. Sometimes I liked that sameness. It made me feel normal, when I worried I wasn’t.
Other times, though, I wanted to be different — to shine, to have people see me as special. I tried ballet dancing and singing and playing musical in...more
More about Linda Urban...
I was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in a suburban house that looked like all the others on my street. Sometimes I liked that sameness. It made me feel normal, when I worried I wasn’t.
Other times, though, I wanted to be different — to shine, to have people see me as special. I tried ballet dancing and singing and playing musical in...more
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“You can't have brave without scared.”
—
9 people liked it
“Fix things before they get too big for fixing.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
Feb 04, 2012 11:27am