Patti Whitehead-Gill 

Connie Gets More Than Her Backyard

Six-year-old Connie Stuart-Anderson has recently moved to a town in upstate New York from New York City. Although she is going to miss her grandparents terribly, her mom has promised her a dog now that they have moved into a house with a big backyard. As she makes friends with Pam, a girl next door who is the very same age, Connie can hardly wait for her dream to come true. 

After Connie stumbles onto the mysterious contents of a moving box, she learns she is adopted and that her birth mother is in heaven. Connie is thrilled to know she has not one, but two mothers. But everything changes when Pam's father discovers a litter of puppies in his backyard one day. Their mother is nowhere to be found. As Pam's family takes the puppies in to care for them, Connie falls in love with one of the little dogs. Will her adoptive mother keep her promise and let her adopt a fur baby? And if so, will the puppies' mom return to claim them? 

In this poignant tale, a little girl learns she is adopted, just as she moves to a new house, meets her best friend, and falls in love with an orphan puppy.