Junkyard Dogs | Review

Because I was tall and grew up in Indiana, I started playing basketball just about since the time I could walk. I actually just played in alumni game at my old high school and got to be coached by one of the best men I’ve ever known. He was my coach from 3rd grade AAU through high school (except for a couple years in middle school). When we did defensive drills, he’d holler, “What kind of defense do we play?” and the team would respond, “Junkyard Dog!” Which to us meant that we went as hard as we could and never quit, guarding our basket with all the ferocity and tenacity of a junkyard dog. 

These were my first thoughts upon receiving Katherine Higgs-Coulthard’s Junkyard Dogs. And then when I opened it to a basketball scene…well, it just felt right. 

And Josh and his brother are junkyard dogs, aside from the fact that they began their life living in a house in the junkyard their parents ran, they’re also tenacious, resilient, and refuse to let up or give up when things get tough. And things are tough. They’re mom died in a house fire at the junkyard, they end up living in a trailer with their Gran who doesn’t want anything to do with them, and their dad has disappeared. They face all kinds of obstacles, but no matter what, they fight for one another.  

I was engrossed and compelled from word one. 

I went into this book thinking it was a rural book. Kathleen reached out to me asking if I’d read and review, and I assumed that the setting would have certain features because of that. It seemed to me that it took place in a more of a town setting, though not a large city. Homelessness features prominently in the novel and in Josh’s world, there is an abandoned factory, bussing system, Center where he can get free meals, tent cities, etc., and all of these say “town” or “city” to me. But that in itself opens up important conversations about how we define and identify what is rural, what is small town versus big town versus city and (lack of) infrastructure rural areas often have to support folks experiencing extreme poverty and housing insecurity. 

There is also one specific time that Josh and crew venture into the farmlands around the city to “harvest” some copper and wire from a new housing subdivision going up which brings up discussions of sub/urban sprawl and the loss of farmland to such housing developments. Which is extremely salient to me, especially right now, because of where I live and all the development that is happening here. Houses seem to appear out of thin air.

So, I don’t think I’d classify Junkyard Dogs as a “rural book” but that isn’t to say that it doesn’t have themes and aspects that would connect to rural readers, especially as connected to experiences of social class. 

For example: 

• My family is no stranger to trailers and trailer parks, so I could connect to Josh and Twig’s experiences at Gran’s 
• The desire to leave or get out is also palpable and common in rural spaces
• The connection to kin and commitment to taking care of one another. Community care and kin care are super prevalent in rural places because rural communities are often isolated from larger metropolitan areas and have historically had to count on each other for survival. 
• It seemed that quite a few characters in the book grew up together or knew one another in some way—Josh and Twig’s dad, Stan, Josh’s basketball coach, and folks at the Center all seem to know one another and have some history. This would also be relatable to rural readers.  

The characters in this book are complex. Josh felt so real to me that it was hard to read what he was going through at times. But if you’ve been around here a while, you know that tough stories, sad stories, are some of my favorites because they showcase the fight in the human spirit. We can take hit after hit and keep comin’. 

Importantly, this book highlights issues of poverty, food and housing insecurity, and the difficulty to tell anyone about it that young people face everyday as well as provides resources to help them make it through. 

So, if you’re looking for a good fight song—a book that shows we are strong and can weather a multitude of storms and misfortunes—or know a reader who is, I definitely recommend this book. 

And if you don’t want to just take my word for it, listen to Chris Crutcher who called it, “Fascinating, fast-moving, completely compelling…one of those stories readers disappear into.” Which I found to be 100% true.