Lola: The Puppy Who Chose Me

This is a memorial book wearing a picture-book coat, and that dual purpose is exactly what makes it land. The dedication — "For Lola, January 12, 2013 – August 21, 2025... Daddy misses you every day" — tells you before page one that this isn't a generic "get a puppy" story; it's a father processing grief through a story a child can hold. That context deepens every simple line that follows. When lonely Mark loses his first animal friend Oscar ("The house next door felt different now— and Mark's world felt a little quieter, too"), the book is already teaching its real lesson: love is worth the ache of loss, so you keep choosing it anyway.

The corgi-choosing scene at the farm is the emotional engine, and it's built with the right instincts for read-aloud pacing — repetition ("It was clear — she had already chosen him"), the small suspense of naming ("Bella? Mia? Lola?"), and the satisfying payoff when Lola wakes at the sound of her name. Young readers get a clean, hopeful arc: lonely boy, goodbye to a friend, drive through the country, new friend found. The closing lines — "Sometimes, you find a friend. And sometimes, a friend finds you" and the footprints image — earn their sentimentality because the book built toward it patiently rather than declaring it.

This won't surprise anyone with tricky plotting or complex characters — it isn't trying to. What it does is give comfort-seeking families, especially ones grieving a pet, a gentle mirror. That's a real and worthy job, done with care.