Dogtown

Dogtown by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko is a middle grade science fiction novel told from the perspective of Chance, a three-legged dog at Dogtown, a place for unwanted organic dogs and discarded robot dogs. Alongside best friend Mouse and robot dog enemy Metal Head, Chance embarks on an adventure to find her forever home, learning important lessons about family, love, and life along the way. Dogtown has been named a New York Times Best Seller, an Indie Bestseller, and an Amazon Best Children’s Book of the Year for 2023, as well as being nominated for several state book awards.

Applegate is known for her stories that bring a voice to the animal experience, including the One and Only and Animorphs series. She got her start ghostwriting the Sweet Valley books and later began penning middle grade tales of fantasy. Choldenko is best known for her humorous middle grade Al Capone series.

This guide refers to the 2023 Welbeck Flame paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of animal cruelty and death, ableism, and death.

Plot Summary

Dogtown is told from the perspective of Chance, a three-legged dog who has been living at the titular dog shelter for almost a year. Dogtown is a place for both unwanted organic dogs and discarded robot dogs. With the invention of low-maintenance robot dogs, adoptions of organic dogs are down, which has caused animosity between the groups. Chance takes particular issue with Metal Head, a robot dog who gets favored treatment by Dogtown’s humans even though he has done nothing to deserve it. Still, Chance recognizes that Metal Head acts differently from other robot dogs, which makes her start to question whether organic and robot dogs are as different as she’s always believed.

The organic dogs of Dogtown live in fear of being put on the List—the document that dictates when they will be put down because they are deemed no longer adoptable. When Chance first arrived at Dogtown, her missing leg put her at the top of the List until her new friend Mouse (a mouse) made her seem like a lucky charm for Dogtown’s poker night. Since then, Chance has had the run of Dogtown, which lets her go anywhere and see everything that goes on. One of her favorite activities is reading buddy day, where children come to read to buddy dogs. Most pick organic dogs as buddies, but one boy, Quinn, struggles with reading or caring about stories until Metal Head reads Green Eggs and Ham out loud.

Watching the boy and robot dog reading together makes Chance wonder if robot dogs are capable of caring like organic dogs do. However, the other organic dogs are mad that Metal Head took a reading buddy away from them, and one shreds the book. In the aftermath, Chance is mad at Metal Head for letting Quinn down until Metal Head helps save an organic dog’s life: When the oldest and most beloved organic dog is moved to the top of the List, Metal Head proposes a protest that he calls a tail-out, where all dogs (organic and robot) ignore humans to give the older dog a final chance to be adopted. When the plan works, Chance agrees to help Metal Head escape Dogtown so that he can find his forever home.

Outside, Chance sees a sign posted on a telephone pole that she thinks is a missing poster for her. By the time she realizes that it’s not, she’s locked out of Dogtown, so she and Mouse go with Metal Head to his former home, where they realize that Metal Head truly cares about the boy he left behind. However, when the boy sends Metal Head away a second time, Metal Head’s heart breaks. To help him, Chance reveals how her family left her with a dog-sitter, which led to Chance losing her leg and running away for her safety. Chance and Metal Head find a new copy of Green Eggs and Ham, and they resolve to bring it back to Dogtown for Quinn.

After a day’s journey, the dogs arrive at Dogtown, where Metal Head is proclaimed a hero for finding the book and Chance is punished for running away. While Chance was gone, another dog usurped her position as the lucky poker dog, and Chance was moved to the top of the List. Knowing that she will die if she stays, Chance leaves Dogtown and returns home, hoping against hope that her family will be there. They are, and they welcome Chance back with open arms. Chance is overjoyed to be loved again and to have found her forever home.