👍The Eyes & the Impossible (2023)

By Dave Eggers

4Rbooks                                           4/6                   grades          6-8

Amazon                                             4.6/5              grade level   3-7

Goodreads                                      4.24/5          

Common Sense Media               5/5                  ages 8+

249 pages

Synopsis

            Johannes is a free dog and “the eyes.”  It is his job each day to run as fast as possible around the park and report back everything he sees to the three bison kept there. The bison are in charge of keeping the equilibrium of the park. Johannes is helped by the assistant eyes: Bertrand, a gull; Sonja, a squirrel; Yolanda, a pelican; Angus, a raccoon. They meet every day with Johannes to report what they see which will also be shared with the bison.

            New things are happening in the park.  A new building is being erected.  There are signs everywhere with pictures on them that Johannes finds mesmerizing. One day, he is so entranced that he allows himself to be captured and leashed by people at the park. Thankfully his friends come together and hatch a plan that helps him escape.

            That isn’t the end of Johannes’s problems. On another day, he sees a child fall into the pond and helps to rescue her. This causes people to want to capture him and soon there are signs all around the park with his picture on them. He is forced to hide for an extended period of time.

            Soon the park has new animal visitors, a herd of goats brought in to eat the over-grown grass around the lighthouse. Johannes becomes friends with one of them, Helene.  Together they come up with a plan to do something impossible, allow the bison to escape to the mainland with the goats when the boats come. It will take the collective effort of every animal on the island and in the park to make this happen.

            They create a plan and enlist everyone, utilizing their individual skills and talents. It must all come together just before the sun rises to be successful.

Parental Guidelines:    low - medium 

Johannes is captured for a short time and shares his discomfort, worry, and concern.

When the gulls know it is time to die, they take a final flight (coda) as high as they can and then fall into the ocean to die.

Bertrand the gull gets shot with an arrow to his wing.

In trying to keep the humans occupied while the bison escape, Angus urinates over the top of their truck.

Helene, the goat, has been ostracized from the herd because of the uniqueness of her horns.

Johannes believes the sun is a god and the clouds are her messengers.

Recommendation

            This novel was the Newberry Medal winner for 2024.  The story meanders a bit introducing all of the characters and the island they live on before fleshing out the main plot. There are a couple of side plots that seem to be part of the story but don’t go anywhere. It does all come together for a satisfying and hopeful ending.  

            The story is told in first person from the dog Johannes’s point of view. His exaggerations about his speed and importance are cute, as is his total lack of understanding about the concept of time.  He has many diverse animal friends in the park, and they work together to help each other and keep the “equilibrium” of the community.  

            The vocabulary is rich so this might be a difficult read alone for a struggling reader. I believe advanced readers and animal lovers will enjoy this novel. I think this novel would work best as a classroom read, small group selection, or home-school project.  There are numerous opportunities for discussions about responsibilities, friendship, stages of life, trying to do accomplish the impossible, and pivoting when plans change. Extension activities would be numerous about the different animals, how humans use animals, and art.

            The illustrations in the book are famous landscape paintings with Johannes superimposed into the picture by illustrator Shawn Harris.