Smart Dog - Vivian Vande Velde I love Vivian Van Velde books...Companion's of the Night, Never Trust A Dead Man, Being Dead, etc. This book was terrible. It was a nice idea, but all the characters had no dimensions, the dialogue was sub par, and you could pretty much see the end from the first chapter. It makes me wonder if this would be a sufficient book for a struggling reader,but then I wouldn't want them to suffer due tothe plot falling short.