This book by Kenneth M. Cadow is a heartfelt novel about the challenges of youth and the value of community.

Family matters; friends, both two- and four-legged, help too.

The story opens with Ian Gray’s Aunt Terry bustling around the house in anticipation of his mom’s return home from the hospital, just a week before Thanksgiving.

In bits and pieces, readers learn that Mom struggles with addiction. Through this and all the subsequent challenges Ian faces, a stray dog who has wandered out of the woods adjoining his backyard becomes his anchor and steady best friend. He names the large, galumphing stray Gather.

Ian recollects spending a lot of time with crusty Gramps, who liked to hunt. Mom makes a slow recovery, landing a job and a boyfriend. Between school, family, and friends, Ian’s world is heavily populated.

Cadow’s debut novel portrays a challenging coming-of-age in rural Vermont, the United States with warmth, humor, and insight. Ian observes the turmoil that surrounds him with bewilderment and deadpan humor.

At one point, after a potentially dangerous incident, he remarks, “Obviously I made it since I’m telling you about it.” Cadow captures Ian’s engaging naïveté, which is tempered by a survivor’s unflappability and a blossoming sense of irony.

The novel has the flavor of a collection of linked stories, boosted by snappy chapter titles: “What You Come Across and What You Do with It” is reminiscence about a fishing trip and a found jackknife but also reflects Ian’s philosophy of life.

Cadow lives in Vermont with his wife and three children, a dog and three cats. Throughout his multiple careers of student, taxi driver, naval officer, grocery store owner, editor, and high school and middle school art teacher, one thing has remained constant: He has always been a writer.