Visitor From The Sea (1965)

Visitor From The Sea
Dorothy Simpson
1965, J.B. Lippincott

Becky Marshall is bored and lonely when she finds a stray dog on the beach. Your Highness appears to be a mix of collie and terrier, and her beautiful manners and loving personality quickly win over the Marshall family. Except for Mama. The Marshalls live in a fishing village on an island off Maine, so Mama is forced to agree to give the dog one week until the next boat can take her to the pound.

Becky spends a hard week alternating between joy at being with her dog and misery at knowing she'll lose her. Also in the mix are her disappointment in her father, who refuses to fight her mother on the dog, and the agony of experiencing a grief her family doesn't share. Her brother, for example, is sympathetic but he can still laugh and attempt to find Your Highness a new owner; he doesn't really understand. As Becky's vivid imagination constructs various ways to keep her pet, a startling number of heroic scenarios do occur - and fail to change Mama's mind.

Dogs
Your Highness - collie/terrier mix
Boffin - mix
Max - black and white collie

Setting
Maine island

About the Author
1905-1998
Aleda Dorothy Knowlton Simpson grew up on one Maine island, Criehaven, and lived for many years as an adult on another, Gay's Island (also known as Burton's Island), with the well-known novelist Elizabeth Ogilvie.

Criehaven Island

Other books by the Author
Island In The Bay (1956)
The Honest Dollar (1957) Maine island girl Jane tries to earn money
A Lesson For Jane (1958) Jane befriends a city girl, Myra
A Matter of Pride (1958) Jane tangles with a teacher
New Horizons (1961) Jane goes to school on the mainland