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While recovering from the loss of his dog Shep, fourteen-year-old Chad tries to learn how to control the family dog Queenie with the help of a friendly new neighbor, an animal trainer. Chad blames his grandfather Jeep and his older sister, Julia, for the death of his dog last fall. Now, as an empty summer yawns before him, Chad still isn't speaking to jeep, he avoids Julia, and he does his best to ignore the rest of the family, especially the new dog, Queenie. But on this quiet Vermont hillside there's no one but family, nothing to fill the long days ahead. Then a new neighbor, David Burton, moves in down the hill. David is a shaper, a dog trainer who shapes animals' behavior using positive reinforcement. He needs an assistant, and he offers Chad the job. David also has a daughter, Louise beautiful, feisty, a dancer-who's only a year older than Chad. Suddenly Chad's life, which had seemed simple if painful, is terribly, wonderfully, confusingly complicated....