The Very First Dog: Book Three in the Sam and Gunny K9 Adventure Series by Joe Jennings, ISBN: 9781791950033, $11.50, Self- published.

This book is a novel and an easy read. It is suitable for young adults. The story blends Native American lore, archaeology and fiction into a very easy read story about a young boy and a search dog who have dreams or “memories” of the past. The story takes you back 15,000 years ago with a dream or vision quest by a young boy. He is called to find the wolves that his people have not seen in many years. A modern boy, Clay, has the dreams and tells them to his family as well as a paleontologist and an Arapaho medicine man who help him understand what he was dreaming. The key to the dreams is Gunny, the search dog.

The book is well written and flows nicely between the dreams and modern day. The interaction of the family is very realistic and relaxed. The main point of the book is to give the reader an idea about the theory of how wolves and humans co-existed and eventually became dogs. What I liked about this book is that Mr. Jennings does not try to claim that the events in his book are fact, but only a theory.

This is a great book to sit down with on a sunny day on the beach or in an easy chair on a rainy day. While it is an adventure, it isn’t a nail biting one.

Mr. Jennings is an excellent writer and having read his two other books, Ghosts of Iwo Jima and Ghosts of the Buffalo Wheel, I can honestly say I was not disappointed. You will enjoy this book.