Shiloh [Hardcover]

Eleven-year-old Marty Preston loves to spend time up in the hills behind his home near Friendly, West Virginia. Sometimes he takes his .22 rifle to see what he can shoot, like some cans lined up on a rail fence. Other times he goes up early in the morning just to sit and watch the fox and deer. But one summer Sunday, Marty comes across something different on the road just past the old Shiloh schoolhouses -- a young beagle -- and the trouble begins.
What do you do when a dog you suspect is being mistreated runs away and comes to you? When it is someone else's dog? When the man who owns him has a gun? This is Marty's problem, and he finds it is one he has to face alone. When his solution gets too big for him to handle, things become more frightening still. Marty puts his courage on the line, and discovers in the process that it is not always easy to separate right from wrong. Sometimes, however, you do almost anything to save a dog.A Reading Group Guide to

The Shiloh Trilogy
By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor


About the Trilogy

The Shiloh Trilogy by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor launched by the Newbery Award–winning novelShiloh, takes readers straight into the heart and soul of an eleven-year-old West Virginia boy named Marty Preston. His family of five has barely enough food and room for themselves, never mind a pet. But when Marty finds an abused beagle out in the woods, he’s willing to go to almost any length to hold on to him. The story of how Marty keeps Shiloh and at the same time tries to balance his responsibilities to his family, to the dog’s troubled original owner, and, perhaps trickiest of all, to himself, unfolds in an unforgettable trilogy. Each book is richly rewarding on its own. Together they form one of the most deeply felt sagas in modern children’s literature.

Discussion Topics

1. Marty loves animals. What details does the author provide, rigl³+