B is a realistic voice. They read like a child. At times irrational and very self-focused. They have a simplistic view of the world and consistently make rash decisions. This can make for an uncomfortable read. The narrative is easy enough to follow. A bit predictable but not bad.

Cute story but ultimately unrealistic and not quite what I had hoped it to be.

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read an arc.

A truly touching middle grade fiction about a nonbinary child in the foster system trying to find their name and home. B hasn’t found the right foster fit. People using aren't understanding about their gender identity, no one understand when they need some space and quiet, and no one lets them have a dog. When B unexpectedly meets Gooseberry, a shelter dog, they feel an instant connection. B knows this is their dog, but can they convince their new foster parents to give him them both a chance?

This story is sweet and very moving. There is a lot of lgbtq+ representation which is always a plus for me. I think there is a lot to learn and empathize with in this story.

Gooseberry is more than a story about a dog. This is about being young and queer, and all the ways it can be difficult but also wonderful. While not reflective of any of my own experiences (expect trying to train a dog) I imagine that many young readers will see themselves in this book. I love that this story exists for all of them.

On a personal note, I don’t have anyone in my life who uses pronouns other than she/he/they. Listening to this audiobook felt like a learning experience through repeated exposure. That’s one of the coolest things about reading, you get to learn about people/places/things outside of your own lived experience.

Meet our main character B. They are living with some not-so-great foster parents at the start of the story. They are nonbinary and have some traits that suggest they are autistic, and probably definitely anxiety. A lot of anxiety. These foster parents basically force B to go to a block party that they have no interest in attending. But in the end, it’s kind of a good thing they went because they ran into the best dog ever, Gooseberry. Although the fosters are complete buttheads, lucky for B they decide they aren’t a good fit. Shortly after, B goes to live with a new couple, Jodie and Wisteria! With the help of some amazing school friends and their new fosters, they learn how to thrive. Oh, and of course, Gooseberry gets adopted by B and their moms.

I loved loved loved the parallel between B and Gooseberry’s lives. This story somehow made me incredibly sad and happy the entire time.
The narrator Krystal Hammond is the perfect voice for B.

I received an ARC of this book to listen to in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

***AUDIO BOOK VERSION***.
Gooseberry is a heartfelt story about a young nonbinary trans person trying to navigate the world around them.
B has been from foster home to foster home since being left orphaned at age four and feels misunderstood and always on the edge of things. When B attends a local event with a foster family and sees Gooseberry (a shelter dog looking for a home), B instantly connects to him. B thinks they're the perfect match; after all, they're both looking for a permanent home and stability. But Gooseberry isn't just any old dog. He's been abused and neglected and is very cautious around humans. B moves on from this foster family to a new one with two mums, and B starts to settle in and feel less misunderstood. One of her new mums is trans too but B doesn't feel comfortable or confident in discussing this with them yet. B manages to convince them to let her get Gooseberry from the shelter and is determined to train him as a service dog. As the four of them start to become more of a family, B also deals with problems in school with bullying and teachers and worries more and more about choosing a name for themselves as B is just a temporary name until one sounds right and fits.
This was a great book to understand more of what trans, nonbinary and LGBTQ people face, deal with, and feel on a daily basis and especially from a child's perspective and the narrator did a great job with the story and was easy to listen to.

thank tou for an early access copy of this book. unfortunately i had to DNF around 8% ad i dont think im the target audience. i read a lot of middle grade but this one reads very young. from what i can tepl of the book it seems like itll be a really heartwarming story

I'm not usually a middle grade reader so maybe some of my issue with this book is just unfamiliarity with the genre, but I thought I was signing up for a heartwarming story about a queer kid and a dog--and I do think that was the book's goal--but I feel like I read about low key animal abuse and a gaslit kid.

B has a lot of difficulties in life, orphaned, in and out of foster homes, non-binary in an environment that often doesn't understand, and a little bit neurospicy. Their dream is to train therapy dogs and they get fixated on one particular dog and on starting that training NOW.

No adult in B's life explains to B that their current circumstances don't allow for this dream to be a present reality, that the first dog anyone trains is unlikely to be therapy-dog ready, or that some dogs just don't have compatible personalities with being a therapy dog and that Gooseberry is one of those. Instead, everyone just watches this kid struggle and disappoint themself while they push a scared and responsive dog way too hard.

But for positives: it was good to see B settle into a welcoming queer family, I do believe that their foster parents were meant to come off as supportive, and both B and Gooseberry make good progress even though a lot of it happens off-page.

content/trigger warnings:
bullying
death of parents (off-page)
foster care system
grief
group home
homophobia
hostility towards dogs (I don't think it can be classified as abuse, just unkind thoughts and behaviors)
social worker
transphobia

representation:
adhd
autistic
lesbian
nonbinary
queer
trans
they/them pronouns
ze/zer pronouns

The first Robin Gow book I read was "Dear Mothman", which made me cry "Bridge to Terabithia" level tears. After reading the synopsis of 'Gooseberry', I figured this would be another tearjerker, but I was pleasantly surprised with how fun it is! Yes, there are sad moments. Some chapters made me cry and reflect on my nonbinary childhood. There were happy tears reading about acceptance and understanding one's identity at a young age. The sadness wasn't profound, it was more of a feature.

I don't think this is as much of an issue as other reviewers are making it out to be, but how Gooseberry was trained isn't the 100% correct way to train a dog if you're a professional. The thing is, B isn't a professional. They're a child. Of course, they're not magically going to know how to perfectly train their first dog. Which is fine because the children reading this book are smarter than adults give them credit for, and this isn't a how-to guide. Kids know this is just a book and that fiction means it's not real! You see B struggles with training Gooseberry. You experience their frustrations. They try over and over again to get it right, and it doesn't happen as quickly as they want it to. Gooseberry isn't perfectly trained by the end of the book either, so I truly do not understand the hate for that aspect of it.

Sorry to complain about other reviewers again, but I disliked how several reviewers claimed B not being diagnosed sooner was unrealistic. Healthcare in America, especially mental healthcare of trans children, is subpar at best. Children in the foster system are often overlooked and go well into adulthood without a diagnosis. Social workers, foster parents, teachers, and other adults in their lives tend to view it as a symptom of the surrounding situations instead of a mental health issue or neurodivergence. Whatever year it is doesn't erase the fact that millions of kids experience a lack of mental health care.

Overall, Gooseberry is a good book. I enjoyed the positive representation of various queer identities and how well they were handled. I'd suggest this for any middle-grade reader in need of diversity as well as nonbinary adults who need the positive representation they were missing during their childhoods.

I rate it 4.5/5 stars (rounded up to a 5) and will be recommending it to tons of other people!

B is a foster child because her parents died when they is young.They and their friends are part of the LGBTQ community and they desperately wants a dog that they met at a fair, Gooseberry. They moves to live with foster moms and finds out what family feels like for the first time. They struggles with her identity, choosing a new name, believing people care about her, bullying, and more. The representation in this book is fantastic and will make some young readers feel seen. The parts with the dog felt off and unbelievable to me and I wished there was less of that. It felt unlikley that her new foster moms would let her get a dog so quickly and even more unlikely that they would let a child who has their own issues take responsibility for training this dog. It seemed unsafe and unlikely. I understand how they are connected to the dog and why they wanted it so much but it felt forced. If they were simply feeding the dog that is one thing but an adult needed to step in and set realistic expectations and that dog should have never gone on the hike. While there is so much to like about the book it would give unrealistic expectations of animals and how a child might be involved in training one.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to listen to Gooseberry as my first advanced audiobook!

I love, love, love all that Robin writes and this was no different. This was such a sweet story and I loved listening to it.

I love the neo-pronouns, the identity representation, the autism representation, and just all of it.

Robin has a way of making you feel so seen. I am glad the youth of today have books like this to find themselves in.

Cute, cute, cute! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audiobook. The characters were all lovely and different. It had an interesting plot and conflict. I loved the relationship between the main character and Gooseberry, the dog. I have my own personal gooseberry and I could really relate to all the feelings that were going through our MC when trying to train him.
I LOVED the main character and I would adore having a kid like B in my life. They are absolutely amazing, loveable and just wonderful. Love how they were written and I really hope the author writes a follow-up. And if not, I can see they have a lot of other great books to dive into. Can't wait!

This was okay but it wasn't great. I didn't really like the characters or connect in any way to them. But it was pretty short and had some good moments. It just didn't really work for me. I've read a lot of middle grade but I guess this one read younger than most? Maybe that's why I didn't connect with it as much. I did really like the representation but it all felt quite surface level. I wished it had more depth and substance... I really just wanted more.

This is such an endearing book that highlights the issues with foster parents. They were really well portrayed and it showed how important understanding titles and feelings went. I think this will be a great read for children inside and outside the LGBTQ+ community. It is important to understand how others are feeling. I loved that Gooseberry was able to provide that missing piece of connection and how they reacted to the dog.

This book was cute, and while I didn't love it, I think it could be great for a young trans and/or neurodivergent kid to read. The writing was very simple and the main character was sometimes a little frustrating to read about, but it was all in a way that still felt realistic to the character and the life they'd led up to that point. As for the narration, I similarly think it worked for the character, but I felt like I was being talked down to for a lot of the book. I think there are a lot of young people this book would be fantastic for, but if you're an adult looking for something fun I'd maybe skip this one.

I loved this book. B is such an insightful child when it comes to their feelings and emotions. This book really paints a picture of what it's like to be trans and a foster kid.

A heartfelt coming of age middle grade book featuring a nonbinary trans foster kid who bonds with a rescue dog and learns to adjust to their new family and make friends in their new school. The queer rep in this book was TOP NOTCH, from the main character, to their friends to their foster moms, it was heartwarming to see such diverse representation. I also loved how much they fell in love with their dog. Great on audio and highly recommended. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

B is a foster kid who gets bounced from home to home. B is nonbinary and also struggles to fit in (later comes out they are autistic). However, the one thing B has always longed for is a dog. When they convince their new foster parents to let them adopt Gooseberry, they are so excited. However, training Gooseberry turns out to be more than expected. Still B does not give up.

I wanted to like this one so much - a main character (with LGBTQ representation) who loves dogs?? Sadly though, this one felt super unrealistic for a lot of reasons (that other reviewers have put much more eloquently than I could). It was also hard having this be first person from B's perspective just because they often do not understand why (for understandable reasons), but it made them harder to sympathize with.

I absolutely adored this book. As someone who has rescued dogs, I thought this was a sweet story. The narration was amazing and the writing was incredible. I think all children would absolutely adore this.

Tragically, this is my least favorite of this author's books. I think my biggest issues with this are similar to what other people have and that it is just completely unrealistic representation for a reactive dog and the training. I feel like this book could have been redeemed had there been extensive explanations from the adults to be about what training a therapy dog actually entails as well as giving them the respect and dignity they deserve as a person to explain to them that their desire to train a therapy dog is not realistic for their current circumstances.

This entire book is about B who is a foster kid who is non-binary and very clearly autistic but undiagnosed. They really want to be a therapy dog trainer when they grow up and they get really attached to this dog named gooseberry who they meet at a county fair situation. B ends up with new foster parents who are queer and essentially acts out until they adopt this dog. The problem is that gooseberry has had a traumatic history and is very reactive. He could be potentially dangerous to those around him and should have never been adopted out without proper professional training and should have never been left alone with a child until training had been accomplished.

My biggest struggle with this was that had the adults and B's life just been honest and told them that this was an unrealistic expectation but maybe we could work towards fostering and training with professional help it would have been okay. At first I didn't have this strong of feelings about it until I read a few other reviews that mentioned that because this book doesn't give the proper explanations to why this situation is unrealistic it's going to give other kids this expectation that they too can interact with and engage with reactive animals. That is just an unsafe thing and as someone with an aggressive dog it is not something that can just be dealt with or handled in a few short weeks.

I really wanted to love this. I love Robin Gow's books and their work but this was a miss for me. I have really enjoyed the other three books I've read by them and so I am in no way writing them off as an author but this one was just a significant miss for me. I do look forward to what they write next and I will continue reading the books.

1.5 stars round DOWN to 1 star. 👎🏻


Oomph, this was a tough read. I was not expecting to be this disappointed.

The most appropriate word for this book = UNREALISTIC.

To sum up the issues I have with this book:

1. That is NOT how training a therapy dog works. It takes months, sometimes YEARS for both dog and handler training to be certified, and even then, not all dogs are cut out to be therapy dogs. Same goes for handlers. Most of the time, it’s the handler that gives up first. Expecting that B, a neurodivergent child, can handle this task mostly on their own is unrealistic and gives kids reading this book false hope that they can do it themselves.

2. Any responsible and reputable animal shelter would NEVER have adopted Gooseberry out to a) a household with a child, b) foster parents who just got this kid a few days ago.
Gooseberry, from the very start, is indicative of having a traumatic life with its past owners, and among other things, has major trust issues which comes out as aggressive behaviour. There are so many scenes in this book that made my teeth clench and my heart sink. B could have been seriously injured more than once. B should never have been in a situation where he would be with Gooseberry alone, and this happened more than twice. Gooseberry should be provided with proper training and rehabilitation by a PROFESSIONAL before ever have been adopted out. Again, unrealistic shelter policy.

3. In this day and age, is it, again, unrealistic that at B’s age, they wouldn’t already have them tested for their very clear neurodivergence. I’m just not buying it.

4. The class bully is not going to engage in any sort of casual conversation with “the bullied” at any point in their school year, even out in the open or in private. That doesn’t make sense. Complimenting B on being a genuine person. Uh, no. Could this happen? Maybe, but HIGHLY unlikely and unrealistic.

What I did appreciate about this book:

Good narration, decent side characters, chapters weren’t too long, good transgender representation and use of gender-neutral and neo pronouns, found/chosen family, etc.

Unfortunately, the bad heavily outweighs the good. I couldn’t in good conscience recommend this book. I would, however, give the author another chance to redeem themselves in the future, and would review more of their related/similar works to see their point of view has changed.

(I received this ALC via NetGalley in return for an honest review. Thank you.)