Fourteen-year-old McKenna is competing in the historic Great Superior Mail Run along the banks of Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada. This dog-sled race honors the tradition of long-ago mail carriers who delivered correspondence to remote outposts in the late-1800s. In fact, McKenna enters the race to deliver a letter about Stargardt disease, a degenerative condition that has caused the loss of her little sister’s eyesight. What McKenna hasn’t told anyone – including her sister or parents – is that McKenna herself is beginning to experience the onset of Stargardt disease and struggles to come to terms with her condition. Ultimately, she will seek to demonstrate that people with fading vision can still live adventurous, capable lives.
McKenna’s mother teaches her an important mantra: No foot, no dog. She shows the reader how to care for the dogs’ feet tenderly and carefully for all 103 miles of the wintry route. She also explains the dogs’ motivation: The panic and adrenaline when a musher is leading her team downhill? The dogs live for that! The sound of the united dog team’s howling? “It reaches into my soul and touches me, wraps me in its expression of unity and joy.” She even admires the dogs for their drive and commitment with, “They’re epic-brave. No matter what’s thrown at them, they don’t think about what they can’t do, just what needs to be done, and then they do it.”
The Great Superior Mail Run naturally introduces a variety of competitors for McKenna. She comes to know two other strong racers her age—Harper, who is really only racing to please her dad; and Guy, who fears he will lose his dog sled team if he doesn’t snag first place. But Dog Driven isn’t really about who will win. When the mushers must take refuge in a cave, they develop a sense of resourceful camaraderie and teamwork. The three competitors trade favors, guidance, and jokes and emerge from the race as friends.
Terry Lynn Johnson is a master of economic and evocative description. Readers will feel the sting of frostbite on their faces, will see the rainbows refracted off the ice walls, and feel heart-pounding adrenaline as the finish line grows closer and closer. While crossing an iced over lake: “Some of the noises the ice makes are like what you’d hear in a Star Wars movie: pew-pew-pew. But it also lets out long eerie moans.”
But what is the message of Dog Driven? What makes it stand out?
Readers quickly learn that Guy’s team is led by Zesty, who is blind! Zesty has acutely developed senses of smell, hearing, and perception, including a sixth sense for danger. When McKenna elects to let her team follow behind Guy, Zesty is effectively leading two sled dog teams through a blizzard! McKenna realizes: “Zesty is not disabled. Her differences make her better.” She recognizes herself in Zesty, and musters the courage to deliver her message and share her story, because, “I am the letter.”
(You’ll find McKenna and Zesty are both inspired by a real young woman with Stargardt’s disease, and a real lead sled dog with compromised vision.)
