High school senior Miguel?s life is turned upside down when he meets new girl Lainey, whose family has just moved from Australia. With her tumbled red-gold hair, her instant understanding of who he is, and her unusual dog?a real Australian dingo?she?s unforgettable. And, as he quickly learns, she is on the run from an ancient bargain made by her ancestors. There?s no question that Miguel will do whatever he can to help her?but what price will each of them have to pay? Dingo is quintessential Charles de Lint, set close to his beloved, invented city of Newford?a mixture of darkness and hope, humor and mystery, and the friendship within love.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up—De Lint ingeniously incorporates Aboriginal mythology into an intriguing story. Miguel, 17, is minding his dad's funky comics and record store in a small resort community when a girl dashes in with her dog to escape the town bully. Miguel feels an immediate connection to her, but there is something strange about her dog. Gradually, he discovers that Lainey is a shape-changer, a magical creature from Australia's Aboriginal past, and the dog—really a dingo—is actually her twin sister. The girls are hiding from their father, who wants to sacrifice Lainey to the powerful Aboriginal spirit Warrigal, the original clan leader, who is trapped in a tree. Suddenly Miguel is catapulted into a rain forest fantasy world complete with a talking cautionary turkey, haunted ancestral bones, and mysterious spirits. Fantasy lovers will enjoy this tale of an initially clueless protagonist thrust into a dangerous situation where he's expected to become an instant hero. A somewhat unnecessary subplot involves the town bully, who actually has a heart of gold and a tender artistic side, and is drawn into the adventure when he falls for Lainey's twin. Still, the juxtaposition of contemporary teen life with fantasy is well done. Readers might be interested enough to investigate more about the complicated Aboriginal Dreamtime of Australia and its early clan spirits and creation myths.—Quinby Frank, Green Acres School, Rockville, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Seventeen-year-old Miguel is drawn to beautiful Lainey from the moment she and her dog appear outside his dad’s comics and music store. He soon learns that this Australian teenager and her identical twin are shape-shifters, sometimes appearing as young women and sometimes as dingoes (the ancestors of all dog breeds), but that doesn’t change his sudden, deep affection for her. Meanwhile, Miguel’s nemesis, Johnny, troubled and a troublemaker, has fallen in love with Lainey’s sister, Em. Together, the four venture into the dreamworld to challenge the power threatening the twins. Canadian fantasy writer de Lint draws from Australian lore to create otherworldly elements in the novel, making smooth transitions from everyday settings to altered realities within Miguel’s accessible first-person narrative. The occasional use of coarse (though appropriate to the characters) language may keep the book out of some middle-school libraries, but with its appealing jacket art, this tautly written, imaginative fantasy will find its audience. Grades 7-10. --Carolyn Phelan
Review
What's wonderful here is trademark de Lint...and the satisfying ending is romantic as heck. -- Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Charles de Lint has been a seventeen-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award, winning in 2000 for his short story collection Moonlight and Vines; its stories are set in de Lint’s popular fictional city of Newford, as is the novel The Blue Girl and much of the collection Waifs and Strays (a World Fantasy Award Finalist). His most recent novel is Little (Grrl) Lost (Viking). Charles de Lint and his musical and creative partner MaryAnn Harris live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
