Amazon www.Bentrim.info Category:  Children Publisher: Bearly Tolerable Publications ISBN-10:  1449918530 Type: Fiction Pages: 104 Copyright: December 7, 2009 ISBN-13: 9781449918538 The Adventures of Hardy Belch chronicle the exciting and unbelievable adventures of a normal 12 year old boy and his 240 pound telepathic dog. In this book, Hardy copes with a bully, learns about intolerance and discovers the value of community cooperation. Parent resources on bullying and intolerance are included. Combining mystery and humor each story is written to entertain, and highlight the value of friendship, planning and selfless actions. ISBN-10: 1449918530 EAN-13: 9781449918538 The Adventures of Hardy Belch chronicle the exciting and unbelievable adventures of a normal 12 year old boy and his 240 pound telepathic dog. In this book, Hardy copes with a bully, learns about intolerance and discovers the value of community cooperation. Parent resources on bullying and intolerance are included.   Combining mystery and humor each story is written to entertain, and highlight the value of friendship, planning and selfless actions.                 Excerpt The most interesting thing about Tiny, though, is not his size. Tiny talks! I don’t mean like television dogs talk, he talks in my head. I have the one and only telepathic dog in the world or at least that I know about. I can hear you now, yeah right, a talking dog. What is up with this kid? Tiny was born at the nuclear plant where his mom was a guard dog. They had an accident one time and Tiny’s mom rescued a guy who got over exposed to some nuclear fuel. She was a big hero and everyone thought she was ok, but then when she had puppies and the puppies were so sick, they wondered if maybe something was wrong with her. Maybe there was and maybe that’s why most of her pups died. I guess maybe the radiation did something to Tiny before he was born. He doesn’t know, and he tells me he has never met another dog that said they can talk to their owners. Oh, yeah, Tiny told me dogs talk to each other, they just can’t talk to humans.

Get ready for some great new characters
"The Adventures of Hardy Belch" is actually a set of three different adventure stories centered around a twelve-year-old boy named Hardy Belch (a name he is none too pleased with!) and his 240-pound telepathic dog Tiny. The two main characters are well written and have a great relationship and it is fun to read their telepathic conversations.

Tiny comes up with plans to solve problems and together the two set them in motion. In the first story, The Bully, Hardy is being hassled by a bigger older kid and needs to find a way to put a stop to it. Tiny comes up with a plan involving the help of other dogs that works like a charm. Tiny has a great intuition about human emotion and motivation which comes into play in the next story, The Green Man. Hardy and his cousins learn a lesson about intolerance when they discover the reality behind a scary legend about a disfigured man. Finally, in the third story, Delaware River Pirates, Hardy and Tiny, while playing pirates, find themselves dreaming their way back to the year 1850 where an unethical Squire is hurting the town and all of the residents by not allowing a road to be built. Again, the pair find a way to solve the problem in a very creative way.

These stories are really creative, fun and uplifting with great illustrations and I sure hope to see more by this author!


Enjoyable and worthwhile reading for children
I was surprised to find on reading this book how effectively and with a very child friendly approach the author deals with the serious issues of bullying and intolerance. The book is written in a way that children will comprehend and enjoy, and also highlights situations or events that may already be familiar to them. The stories themselves are written well and contain enough plans and ideas to keep many a young reader amused. I loved the artwork too, which put me in mind of the old Mad comics that I read as a child many years ago. The advice sections that follow the stories are a good touch and a nice way of getting the children to relate at their level to the issues dealt with in the story. All in all this is a fun, worthwhile and important read for children and a book that will be enjoyed by many and talked about to others after reading.


Entertaining Story with Morals
Once I started reading this book, I just didn't want to stop! It is a fun story from start to finish-but still manages to slip in some useful tidbits about tolerance, bullying, and other such behaviors without sounding "preachy." I adore Tiny-Hardy Belch's telepathic dog. It adds a touch of humor to the whole thing that kids (and parents) will love! This story would make a good gift for the 9-12 year old in your life.