Michelle Godard-Richer Author

📚Hadley’s Book of the Week is The Weight of a Dog by Alex Lucio
Pub Date: April 15, 2026
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Description: The world expected NHI - non-human contact - to arrive in spaceships. It arrived twelve thousand years ago in the form of an impossibly stubborn ancient English Bulldog, and an absolute refusal to let go.

When seventeen-year-old Nick Constantino arrives at his grandfather Giovanni’s New England workshop, still unraveling from a grief he was never taught to carry, the last thing he expects to find is a sixty-pound English Bulldog who seems to have been waiting for him. Baloo is not what a dog is supposed to be. He watches with an attention that belongs to something older and quieter than any animal Nick has ever known - moving through town on his own errands, answering calls no one made aloud, and arriving at Nick’s door in the dark hours with a weight that feels less like comfort and more like intention.

Giovanni has felt it too. For months the old craftsman has understood, in the wordless way he understands wood grain and silence, that Baloo is performing a vigil. That something is being transferred between them - breath by breath, night by night - a weight that is not burden but purpose. And now that purpose is shifting. The dog’s attention is moving toward the boy.

My thoughts: As a dog lover who knows grief, this story hit so many emotional notes for me. Baloo is an old soul and such an intriguing dog. His human counterparts, Nick, Julie, and Giovanni are also distinct characters and their relationships and shared grief make this story so special. The mythical elements, woven with science, take the characters on a journey that is incredibly unique and moving. This is a great book for dog lovers and those who enjoy genre bending literary stories.

Thank you, Alex Lucio, for the gifted book and fun swag.

QOTD: Do you have any pets or a favorite animal?

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