Marley and Me by John Grogan | Teen Ink

Marley and Me by John Grogan

March 2, 2017
By Anonymous

The title of the book that I'm currently reading is Marley and Me, by John Grogan. The book is about John and Jenny Grogan, who have just moved to South Florida and live in a small greenhouse by the ocean exactly next to Palm Beach where the world's worst dog Marley loves to take walks and go for a swim. There are many funny and adventurous moments in the book and Marley makes most of them happen. The genre is non-fiction and the time that the story takes place is in the early 1900s. 

The major character in the book, Marley and Me, is the dog of the family, which is Marley. Marley is a golden, yellow Labrador Retriever that's been adopted by John when he was a small puppy.  Marley was the craziest and most energetic pup from the entire litter. He was adopted on a farm that just had a huge litter of puppies to give away. Of Course, John took one for Jenny since her birthday was coming up she and himself grew up with many dogs in their life so they were great dog lovers. As Marley grew up around them he became more destructive eating and ripping the pillows on the sofa or chewing almost every shoe that John owned or even chew on the legs of their wooden kitchen chairs. Even though Marley chewed on almost everything in the house and was called the world's worst dog for doing so he also had a great friendly personality, was always eager to play, and also thought the Grogans valuable and important lessons.

Some of the other characters were, of course, Jenny and John Grogan and their three kids Patrick, Connor, and Coleen. Jenny and John were married only a couple years before moving to Florida and getting their family pet Marley. Patrick, Connor, and Colleen Weren't born until almost the very end of the story and were born a couple years apart from each other but were also born around the time when Marley was getting older and older and soon grew weaker as an old dog. The oldest son was Patrick and the second oldest was Connor. John and Jenny had only one daughter which was Coleen she was the youngest of the kids.

The book Marley and Me is about how sometimes a very simple thing can change a lot in someone's life. Just like Marley John adopted him as just a gift for his wife's wedding but Marley changed their lives in many ways. I think that this story has two conflicts and one of them is an external conflict. This is an external conflict because Marley causes Jenny and John a lot of stress and some arguing because of Marley sometimes destroying their home and knocking over the kids with his excitement. At one point Jenny and John thought about selling Marley because what he did to their home. Another conflict is when Marley started getting older and weaker but still, Jenny, John, Patrick, Conner, and Coleen helped him walk and still loved him as much as they always had. John and Marley started going to the vet more often because he was getting weaker and seemed sicker One day John went to the vet with Marley and found out he had cancer and that he didn't have a lot of time left. This was the most horrifying news that they could hear about Marley. Afterall he was always there with them since the beginning of the family. Soon enough they all went to the vet again but unfortunately Marlys time was up. It was a great loss to the family and Marley had his own funeral at his family home. He was given gifts and beautiful speeches by the kids and John.

My personal opinion about this book is that it can be a very funny and adventurous story but it also has a bigger meaning or a greater message. I really like this book it is one of my favorites because it has a lot of humor in it but it also has some parts that are meaningful. I would recommend this book to people that like to read non-fiction stories and to major dog lovers. I would also recomend this to people that like to read


The author's comments:

This is my first book review on Teen Ink and I hope you like it!


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