Barry der Menschenretter, a Saint Bernard dog, reflects back on his life in the early 1800s at the Hospice of the Great Saint Bernard in the Swiss Alps, where he rescued some forty people from avalanches. Includes facts about the breed and the hospice.

Eleven-year-old Charlotte is not a dog person but does not like that the rest of her family neglects their Saint Bernard puppy, and so with a lot of determination and a little sneakiness, she works on finding a good home for the gentle giant.

Among other things, Julia Gillian is highly skilled in the Art of Knowing -- about her quirky neighbors, her Minneapolis neighborhood, even the inscrutable "claw machine" in the back of the corner hardware store. Unfortunately, the one skill Julia Gillian doesn't have is knowing how the book she's reading is going to end; it doesn't seem as if it's going to have a happy ending, and that frightens her. But being afraid teaches her something new: that...