"Katie Up and Down the Hall" Review

I finished reading this book yesterday.


Katie is about a cocker spaniel and the family she forms around herself in an apartment building in Battery Park City. For those of you not familiar with New York City neighborhoods, Battery Park City is a community on the southwestern tip of Manhatten. It was formed from the soil and rocks excavated when the World Trade Center was built.

The book opens with a description of Battery Park City and how the author, Glenn Paskin, ended up moving there and then later adopting Katie. From there we meet some of the neighbors in the apartment building, and learn how Katie created a family from some of the others who lived  in the building: Pearl and Arthur, an elderly couple, John and Ryan, a single Dad and his son, Lee, a woman who befriends Pearl during the confusion of 9/11, and a few other people who come in and out of Katie and Glenn’s lives.

It’s a heartwarming story that spans all of Katie’s years, including a compelling, description of September 11, 2001. Battery Park City borders the World Trade Center, putting the story almost at Ground Zero. I found this part very captivating, as Glenn Plaskin recounted his escape from the frightening destruction of the Twin Towers. I almost felt I was there racing down the streets with him. Very scary account of his real life experience. 

His descriptions of Katie and her antics with the book’s other characters were very entertaining.

This is a true story, "true" in the sense that it happened. The book is fun to read, and I don't think you would necessarily have to be a dog lover to enjoy the book. I give it 4 stars out of 5, I really liked it.