Written by Valerie Hobbs in 2006, Sheep is a middle grade novel about a border collie who searches for his purpose after his home is destroyed. The book was nominated for several awards, including the California Young Reader Medal (2009), the Sequoyah Book Award (2009), and the Kentucky Bluegrass Award (2008); it also received glowing reviews from sources such as Kirkus Reviews and the School Library Journal.

Hobbs is the author of several books for young readers and is known for her ability to weave realism into fantastic tales. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she has also taught academic writing. In 1999, Hobbs won the PEN/Norma Klein Award in recognition of her status as an emerging voice of literary merit among American writers of children’s fiction, and in 2003, she became the Arizona Library Association Young Adult Author of the Year.

This guide refers to the first hardcover edition published in 2006 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss animal cruelty and death.

Plot Summary

Sheep is narrated by Jack, a border collie who tells of his adventures and the people he meets while seeking his life’s purpose. After a fire destroys the farm where he works as a sheep herder, Jack is taken from his home and the only life he knows. As a puppy, Jack thought that the worst thing in the world was having to wait to grow up before he could be chosen to help with the sheep, but now, after only a few days of his new life, he realizes that the world is much wider and stranger than he ever guessed.

After escaping his first new home, Jack spends several years with a traveling man whom he refers to as the “Goat Man” because of the herd of goats that the man cares for. The man is good to Jack, offering him food, shelter, and wisdom, and Jack keeps himself busy herding the goats, though they mostly ignore him. When the Goat Man dies of an illness, Jack goes off on his own again, only to fall in with a couple of thieves. From there, Jack spends time in the pound and then ends up with a cruel circus trainer. Throughout these hardships, Jack struggles to hold on to his sense of self and his dreams for the future, but he nearly loses everything when the circus trainer whips him almost to death.

When a fire burns down much of the circus, Jack escapes and meets Luke, an orphan boy who needs a friend as much as Jack does. Jack sees Luke’s potential and helps the boy get adopted by the perfect family. The boy’s new family also takes Jack with them. Jack is overjoyed to discover that his new family is starting a sheep farm. By helping Luke, Jack learns that his purpose and his job are not the same thing. After having a dream of the Goat Man, who tells Jack that he has done well, Jack is content in the knowledge that he is exactly where he needs to be.