The Shiba Force: The Echoing
It was his voice. It was not him.
Every night of his long stay on the farm, Kuma steps out into the dark yard and says one word under his breath. It is the word that once stopped him on a mountain, in the voice of the old Akita who raised him: enough.
Then, from beyond the northern ridge, the word comes back.
It is Makoto's voice, low and level and worn smooth. But Makoto is gone, and Kuma knows exactly where he rests. And this voice never leaves the quiet after it that a living voice always leaves.
So the Shiba Force follows the old fire-watch trail into a gorge that keeps every sound it is given. Hank's morning greeting. The bang of the screen door. Even their own bells, ringing in their order when none of them is ringing. The more the gorge hears, the stronger it grows, and the harder it becomes to do anything a new way.
To silence it, the pack will have to break the very habits that make them feel safe. And Kuma, the biggest dog on the farm, will have to find out what he sounds like when he stops trying to be someone else.
The Echoing is a story about the people who raise us, the habits we borrow from them, and the courage it takes to be wholly ourselves, even when that is a little too much.
An illustrated chapter book for readers 8 to 10, with an illustration closing every chapter, a gentle mystery that reads aloud beautifully, and an Author's Note for young readers and the grown-ups who read with them.
Book Six of The Shiba Force.
Customer Reviews
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
