My Life in Dog Years

My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen
Book 1998 (Buy | Borrow)

Gary Paulsen writes about all the dogs he had in his life so far. Some of these dogs saved his life. The dogs in this story have a special place in his life. I highly recommend this book.

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think that Paulsen chooses to tell the story of his life indirectly, by talking about his time with dogs?
2. Do you think that all the dogs that Paulsen profiles in his book have a lot in common? Or does each dog stand out as really different from the last?
3. Why do you think that Paulsen included dogs that didn't actually belong to him?
4. Do you think there's a real difference between dog people and cat people? In what ways does Paulsen's personality fit the profile of a typical "dog person"?
5. Why do you think Paulsen wrote the book as chapters focusing on one dog each?
6. How does Paulsen's writing style make his stories about the dogs seem so authentic and believable?
7. Why do you think Paulsen pretty much leaves people out of these stories (except for himself)?
8. What seem to be Paulsen's feelings about humans in general?

Words to Know (Quizlet) 

absolve
alcove
blind
brindled
cohorts
comatose
communal
compressed
conventional
convoluted
dappled
daunting
deduced
deftly
demented
devastated
devious

dickering
dilemma
disconcerting
disseminating
emaciated
excruciatingly
facile
forays
forerunner
gobbets
granary
haggle
headman
heirloom
Iditarod
intervals
inventive

isolation
jauntily
liberally
mandatory
menace
montage
moot
mute
obscenities
obvious
palomino
palpable
precarious
predatory
primitive
prolific
quail

quintessential
ravaged
recoil
rogues
rotund
skeptical
staid
synthetic
tableau
terminally
unabashedly
veld
venison
visceral
volition
welter
élan