Only Berta’s family – nine-year-old Marjory Miller and her parents – know what a truly remarkable dog she is. To the outside world, she seems like a perfectly ordinary, slightly lazy dachshund. Even Marjory acknowledges that Berta’s favorite pastimes are “eating and sleeping and, if necessary, taking short walks.” But one spring Berta develops a sudden interest in baby farm animals. She tries her hand at mothering baby chicks and a neighbor’s newborn kitten, none of whom particularly need or want Berta for a mother. Patrick the lamb, however, is another story. Rejected by his own mother, he needs special care and Berta is equal to the task. Episodic chapters and a gentle, humorous tone make this short novel perfect for newly independent readers. Like Marjory, they will come to see exactly what makes Berta remarkable: her ordinary dogginess. (Ages 5-9)

Berta the dachsund is an easy dog to love. She sleeps a lot and doesn't seem to be bothered by much of anything -- not even when Margery Miller's best friend Rosalind calls Berta a sausage dog. But Margery knows that one day, Berta will surprise everyone by doing something remarkable. And she does. It starts in early spring, when Berta suddenly becomes interested in the newborn chicks that Mr. Miller brings home to raise. Then she starts watching after the baby piglets in the barn. When the Millers are given a newborn lamb to raise, Berta immediately jumps into his box and protectively curls herself around him. She barks when it is time for his feedings, and she tries to lick him clean. Margery begins to piece it together: Berta wants to be a mother, and she has finally found a baby to look after! But a dachsund is an unusual mother for a lamb, particularly when it begins to grow. That's when Margery and her friends decide that he needs some help if he is going to learn how to be a sheep. This is an engaging story about animals and their human companions.