I thought that this was one of the best books I have ever read. Wroblewski's insight into the minds of dogs took my breath away. Right down to the fact that their feet "smell like popcorn" was right on target. I'm 66 and have raised, trained and rescued dogs all my adult life and simply marveled at his apparent relationship with dogs.

I'm also a retired school teacher and have worked with special needs kids. The coming of age of Edgar was heart warming, sad, funny and so believable. What a wonderful guy and so good with the dogs. His training techniques were brilliant and the care he showed toward the adult dogs and the puppies could be an example for any of us who love and live with dogs.

As for the ending...that's life guys. We can't always have all the answers all the time. Sure it was sad, however, it was believable. Just like real life, we sometimes have to fill in the blanks. It's upsetting in real life as well, but, that's the way it is.

I would strongly recommend this book. Being a retired reading specialist, however, I would tend to recommend it to adult readers regardless of age.
In order to be able to deal with the "unusual" ending and to have it not ruin this beautiful book one needs to understand that not all stories are going to have a predictable ending or one that we necessarily like. In the case of "Edgar Sawtelle" you simply need to put together everything that happened in the book and to Edgar to be able to come up with your own ending. I enjoyed the challenge after getting over the temporary disappointment.