When two unlikely friends bond over shared compassion for a bereft but lovable dog, they learn what it truly means to find a sense of belonging and identity.

Eleven-year-olds Gladys and Jude live in the same small rust belt town, and go to the same school, but they are definitely not friends. Gladys is a tiny, eccentric, walking dictionary who doesn’t hesitate to express herself, while Jude likes to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself. But they both agree that a new dog in the neighborhood is being mistreated by its owner.

Gladys would like to do something to help, while Jude is more resigned to the situation— until the dog (who Gladys has named True Blue) disappears. They hatch a plan to find her, and once they do, realize they have a problem: Gladys’s father is allergic and Jude’s mother hates dogs. There is no way they can bring her home.

They hide True Blue in an abandoned house on the edge of town, but as their ties to the dog—and to one another—deepen, so does the impossibility of keeping such a big secret. Yet giving True up will break all three of their hearts.


Told in alternating voices set in a small, rust-belt town, Looking for True is a story about family, identity, and finding friends in unexpected places.


A Horn Book Fanfare Title