num_pages: 112
description: Based on a true story a stray dog befriends an orphan boy in a refugee camp on a Greek island. The fishermen on Lesvos call her Kanella because of her cinnamon color. Shes a scrawny nervous stray  easily intimidated by the harbor cats and the other dogs that compete for handouts on the pier. One spring day a dinghy filled with weary desperate strangers comes to shore. Other boats follow laden with refugees who are homeless and hungry. Kanella knows what that is like and she follows them as they are taken to a makeshift refugee camp. There she comes to trust a bearded man an aid worker and gradually settles into a contented routine. Kanella grows healthy and confident. She has a job now  to keep watch over the people in her camp. One day a little boy arrives and does not leave like the others. He seems to have no family and like Kanella he is taken in by the workers. He sleeps on a cot in the food hut and Kanella keeps him warm and calm. When two new adults come to the camp. Kanella is ready to defend the boy from them until she is pulled away by the bearded man. They are the boys parents and now he must go with them. Eventually the camp is dismantled and Kanella finds herself homeless again. Until one night huddled in the cold she awakens to see two bright lights shining in her eyes  the headlights of a car. The bearded man has come back for her and soon Kanella is on a journey too to a new home of her own. Key Text Featuresmapsillustrationsauthor's note Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
language: English
title: The Stray and the Strangers
publisher: Groundwood Books