Looking for 70’s Scholastic (?)? paperback. A dad is forced to take a job at a kill shelter, needs the money. The kids find homes for animals, and they shut down the cremation building where smoke billows out In a country type place. They are happy. Maybe 2-3 grade level book. Approx year read ‘76 but could be classroom book and older.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
I am the OP- The name might have been the name of the shelter or the building. It seems to me they kept mentioning the black smoke coming out of this chimney where the animals were cremated, which is pretty gruesome, but I noticed they came out with a new edition of the Old Cat and the kitten, which really depressed me as a kid, so maybe someone still knows it? Tha hs again.
Ok- I tried to think about everything I remembered carefully.
It was a chapter book and a paperback. It was either in my classroom and belonged to my teacher, or I bought it at school (The Scholastic book fair was my favourite thing, but I read all the books in the classroom library too.)
It may have had a few black and white illustrations like “Little House on the Prairie”, but it should be around grade level 3-6.
The dad is forced to take a job working at the county pound because they need money. He has a boss, who is a decent person.
The 2 kids, I think a boy and girl dislike the fact the animals are killed after a limited time.
They are in a more rural place. I think the countryside.
It might be set during the Depression, as the father is very worried about finding a job. He seems to think this is his only chance to be employed. It may also be just that they are in the countryside, and there aren’t tons of jobs. It doesn’t seem like the book was set when I read it, in the 70s, it seemed sometime in the past, but they had cars.
They have some kind of incinerator and black smoke comes out of the small building when they burn the dead animals.
The father talks to his kids, and asks the boss to change to give animals as long as they need to find a home, but the boss is skeptical that the plan will work.
The family tries to get people to come to the “pound” or shelter, and tries to get people to adopt a pet, that suits them.
After a year or a little more a small scruffy dog they didn’t think they could help find a home is adopted. (Maybe by an older lady, but I am not totally sure, but he gets a good home that suits both of him and the person who takes him home)
They make a point about how the smoke no longer comes from the building. They are all happy the end.