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Wheels and All

by Jeremy C. Smith

A friendship beyond first impressions

Regular price $12.14 USD
Regular price $20.24 USD Sale price $12.14 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

A friendship beyond first impressions

Noah Bennett begins with a careful plan to find a dog, sorting breeds by practical details and his own “Vibe Rating.” Meeting Otis, a brindle mutt who also cannot use his back legs, changes the shape of that search. Their shared experience brings disability and the assumptions others make about it into a story about companionship, independence, and the distance between people. The novel’s imagery of wheels frames both physical movement and the effort of meeting someone where they are.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Teens and young adults interested in stories about personal identity and disability.
  • Readers drawn to fiction centered on the bond between a young person and a dog.
  • Those interested in stories about social assumptions, friendship, and connection.

Themes

Disability and personal identityAssumptions and first impressionsFriendship and companionshipIndependence and connection

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Noah Bennett has a spreadsheet.

Six months of research. Fifty breeds narrowed to three. Columns for temperament, size, bite force, and a category he invented himself called Vibe Rating. Somewhere in all that data is a dog that will stand between a fifteen-year-old in a wheelchair and a world that only sees a chair.

Then a brindle mutt named Otis rolls across a farmers market parking lot on two wheels of his own, puts his head on Noah's knee, and six months of careful planning no longer matter.

Like Noah, Otis can't use his back legs. Neither of them thinks this is the saddest thing about him - but almost everybody else does - and Noah has spent his whole life learning that most people don't avoid you by being cruel. They do it by being polite.

This is a story about wheels, and how far they can take you. About the half second after you look at someone and decide you already know. About the difference between doing hard things with a friend and doing them alone.

And about what happens when the distance between you and someone you love turns out to be a few inches of air - and one of you has to come the rest of the way.

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