9780062656544
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Hero audiobook

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Hero Audiobook Summary

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine., Jennifer Li Shotz

Hero, a retired search-and-rescue dog, is not prepared for a stray puppy to come into his life. But when he and twelve-year-old Ben find Scout injured and afraid, the new addition leads them down an unexpected and dangerous path.

When Scout goes missing, it’s up to Hero to use his search-and-rescue skills to find Scout and bring him home.

Get ready for a canine adventure full of danger, loyalty, and the unbreakable bond between a boy and his best friend.

Don’t miss these other irresistible books in the heartwarming Hero series:

Hero: Hurricane Rescue

Hero: Rescue Mission (Available in October 2017!)

Other Top Audiobooks

Hero Audiobook Narrator

Kirby Heyborne is the narrator of Hero audiobook that was written by Jennifer Li Shotz

Jennifer Li Shotz is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine., about the coolest war dog ever. Among other things, Jen has written about sugar addiction, stinky shoes, and sports-related concussions. A Los Angeles native, she graduated from Vassar and has an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, where she is campaigning hard to get a rescued pup. For the occasional tweet, follow her @jenshotz.

About the Author(s) of Hero

Jennifer Li Shotz is the author of Hero

More From the Same

Subjects

The publisher of the Hero is HarperCollins. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Action & Adventure, Juvenile Fiction, Survival Stories

Additional info

The publisher of the Hero is HarperCollins. The imprint is HarperCollins. It is supplied by HarperCollins. The ISBN-13 is 9780062656544.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Skip

May 14, 2018

A cute dog story for late elementary school age kids. Hero is a retired police dog, adopted by Ben, the son of a policeman. Together, they discover a small, abused puppy, whom Hero immediately adopts, and Ben too. Turns out that the puppy Scout escaped from a dog-fighting enterprise, who want Scout back, and Hero too. Meanwhile, Ben has a lot going on, with baseball tryouts and a new kid in town, Jack, who plays shortstop too. Predictable and helpful to suspend belief to enjoy the story.

Cody

January 23, 2017

It was a great book. It had a mystery element through the whole book. I highly recommend it.

La Tonya

December 22, 2022

An adoreable read about a police dog named Hero. A search and rescue dog.A young stray puppy who was named Scout and the yound boy who loved them named Ben. Great a story to read for the holidays. Quote:"Taking of Hero will be your opportunity to show us what you're made of.""Bye." Ben signed. Most of the time it was great when your best friend was baeball obessed. But sometimes it was just stressful."You're not asking him; you're telling him. Your tone needs to let hi know your in charge."

Alyssa Hawkins

January 01, 2021

Read per my son’s recommendation from 3rd grade class read aloud. Predictable plot from an adult perspective, however a great tale of a boy and the bond between boy and dog!

David

November 13, 2019

My son picked out this book, so we read it together as part of his homeschooling. He has a dog of his own and was able to relate to the two canine heroes of the story. A very good book for young animal lovers!

Stephen

October 16, 2022

The book ‘Hero’ by Jennifer Li Shotz is only Wesley Banks 100 Best Dog books of All Time (his list for 2022). It is good, and I enjoyed it, but I give it a solid 4. It is pretty good for a book geared for youth. I think when you reading it as an adult, you have to put yourself in your youthful self-shoes but the adult part of you still has some questions on things. The adult side has questions.The dog Hero is great. A retired Search and Rescue police dog. My adult side questions why a dog that seems still so strong can just retire after all the investment that has to go into them, but let’s run with it that this Police force likes to allow them to retired before they slow down or have issues. Hero like his name is great. At one point the main character Ben describes one aspect of him:The dog was so… alert. If Ben so much as twitched his pinkie finger, Hero noticed. It was like Hero’s whole body and mind were in sync, absorbing everything around him. Whatever Hero did, he did wholly and intentionally. That’s what Ben needed to do. His dad called it “acting with purpose.”Part of that leads to my second discussion about the book, is that the author is working positive messages into the book that the boy has to learn and eventually come to the right conclusions. I like this in a book. Things like getting so involved in something you forget things you should be doing, or lying rather than tell the less than positive truth are common lessons growing humans need to learn. It is good when he learns the lessons on his own instead of just have a parent in the book give him the answer. I liked how Ben gives more than the benefit of the doubt to the questionable kid I the book. There was one piece of advice I liked that was given to him:“When your dad feels overwhelmed,” she went on, “do you know what he does?”Ben shook his head.“Even if he’s in the middle of an investigation, he stops, figures out what he’s not doing right and how he could do it better, and he comes up with a new plan. He doesn’t sit around feeling mopey, that’s for sure,” his mom said.The story does involve a tough topic; dog fighting, including where the boy has to defend himself or others from a bad guy. There is a point where he has to decide to go in where the bad guys are when the right answer is ‘just call the Police!’ Hero and the young dog have occasions where they have to attack people or fight other dogs. I wonder how a Labrador would really do fighting the dogs they use for dog fighting. I think where the dog has to attack people are realistic enough, but you still worry for all involved. In the old days a dog could bite a bad guy and we just cheered, us grown ups now have to thing about litigation, but all in good fun in fiction so I just go with it.Hard to write a review so you don’t give things away, and yet express discussion points to talk about after they have read the book. Hope my comments are good on both points.So, I really did like the book but not enough to give it a enthusiastic 5 stars, much less for me to add to my personal shelf of ‘dogs-favorite-books.’ It was a lot better written than most of the other books geared to youth. For younger kids it could spur some good discussions. I know Jennifer Li Shotz has a lot of other books and I look forward to reading them.

Stephen

January 14, 2020

HERO starts with the dog named Hero being retired from his job as a police k-9. They tell Ben (main character/son) that he can have Hero if he keeps his grades up in school and does well.Ben and Hero have always had a great connection so this was a huge push for Ben to start really focusing in school. In the middle of the book Hero and Ben find an injured puppy in the woods that had looked like it had gotten beaten. they took him home with them and Ben's parents said he could stay until they found a richase owner. At the end, Hero and Ben figured out that the people who beat the puppy ran a dog fighting organization and they shut it down. Ben is athletic, cool, and funny. Hero is strong brave and heroic. The story takes place at school, at the baseball field, Ben's house, and the dog fighting arena. I like this book very much and would recommend it to anyone who likes dogs and suspense. My favorite part of the book is when Hero realized that the one who was running the dog fighting operation was a bad man, so then he attacked him." Hero on his back clamping down on the back of mitches neck." I really like this part because it's where mitch finally gets what he deserves.

Lydia

March 10, 2020

This book has to be one of my top favorite books I've read this year. I'm going to start off by naming the characters. First, we have Ben, he is the main character. Then, Noah, he is bens' best friend. Then there's Hero, he's a retired police dog that follows ben everywhere. Then, Jack, he is the new kid at bens school. And of course, Scout, he is a little puppy that Ben found in the book. In Bens town, there has been a lot of hurt stray dogs and Bens dad, who is a policeman, thinks someone is doing illegal dogfighting. Ben was with Hero outside when Hero spotted Scout. Scout and hero loved each other so Ben took scout with him. His parents let him keep Scout but if he could not be trained they would get rid of the puppy. Everything was fine when one day Scout goes missing. Ben knew he could not tell his parents or they would get ride out Scout so he called Hero and his best friend Noah to help find him. They then gave Hero the command and Hero led them to a place far away. They soon knew that Scout was taken by someone and was going to be in a dogfight. Read this book to find out what happens to Scout.

Andrew

April 07, 2020

The theme of this book is friendship and bravery. Ben adopted a retired search and rescue dog named Hero. He loved that dog. He also adopeted a puppy named Scout. Ben and his friend Noah decided to train the dogs and made a obsticle track for them to train on. The boys had fun trining the dogs. A guy named Mitch stole the dogs knowing they were trained and was going to use them as fight dogs. Ben figured out where the dogs were and he and Noah tried to rescue them. They got into trouble but Hero got free and using his seach and rescue skills attacked Mitch to allow Scout to get free. Hero got really hurt and almost died tryning to help free Scout.The theme is always stand up for your friends even if you are scared.

Josh

October 08, 2019

I love this book in some spots it is intense where it should be and calm when it should 5 stars if not 6.

Mamareads

September 15, 2017

This was a fantastic book. It kept me on the edge of my seat at all times. I have a dog that is always wanting to protect me so I can relate. Once I read a chapter at night, and I was at a great spot but I couldn't keep reading because I was so tired. Then at midnight I woke up and I read and read and read and at 1 am I finished the book. You guys should really get it!

Luke

October 14, 2022

Hero by Jennifer Li Shots is about a boy and his dog. Ben is the son of a K9 officer. His dad's partner in crime was named Hero. He was retiring from the job. Whenever he retired, Hero was given to Ben, and he came home to live with Ben and his family permanently. Life was going great for Ben and Hero. Every day after school, Hero, Ben, and his best friend Noah, would go to the baseball field after school and practice baseball for the upcoming tryouts. One day something happened, after Noah had left, Hero and Ben stayed around for a few more minutes so that Ben could throw Hero the ball a couple more times. On the last throw, Hero started acting weird and the ball was nowhere near where it had landed. Hero started tracking, like he used to on the job. When Hero made his way into the woods with Ben at his heels, he finally found what he was tracking. It was a puppy. But it wasn’t just an ordinary puppy. This puppy was extremely shy and was beaten up quite a bit. But Hero instantly took a liking to him and wouldn’t let Ben go home without him. His parents weren’t happy about him bringing another dog into the house but they soon came to like him. Ben named him Scout and his dad was sure that he had came from a local dog fighting ring that they were trying hard to find. While Ben continued on with his life the best he could balancing two dogs, school and upcoming baseball tryouts, he keeps noticing a strange man that keeps coming into his life. The man introduces himself as Mitch. He complemented Ben’s dogs and also asked him if he ever thought about putting them in fights. Ben found this very suspicious but he didn’t think much of it. One day, Ben leaves his dogs in his back yard unattended for a short amount of time. When he gets back, both the dogs are gone. He suspects that it was Jack, the boy who just moved into town who doesn’t like Ben. Ben confronts him and it isn’t Jack. Ben searched for day, looking everywhere for the two dogs, but he couldn’t find them. A few days later, Hero shows up at his house, but Scout was still gone. Hero was pretty banged up and Ben didn’t know what to think. Ben sets Hero on Scouts scent to try and find him. Hero leads him all the way to the very outskirts of town to a lone house. There was Scout. But he also runs into Mitch again. It was Mitch’s house that Scout was at. Later on, Scout runs away again and Ben has Hero track him down again. Hero leads them to an abandoned farm with a big shed. Noah and Ben go into the shed and they find Mitch and a group of other men running a dog fighting ring. Ben gets Scout back from one the dog kennels that Mitch keeps his fighting dogs in, but Mitch catches him in the act. Mitch tries to hurt them but Ben, Noah, Scout, and Hero all make it out alive. Ben goes home and tells his dad about the whole situation and Ben’s dad has the police station on notice. They eventually bust Mitch and all his friends for the dog fighting ring and Ben gives Scout to Jack, who is his friend now. I really liked this novel. I really liked it because of how it demonstrates the relationship between a boy and his dogs. Dogs are a persons best friend. They are always loyal no matter what and I personally love dogs. I also really like it because of its theme which is treating others how you would want to be treated and friends and family in your life are the most important people. I also really liked how the other portrayed dog fighting. Dog fighting used to be a big problem in the United States and in some places it still is. The author perfectly demonstrates how bad dogs fighting is and how it affects people, and most importantly dogs. I also like how she demonstrates the relationship between Noah and Ben. They are inseparable and they always depend on each other, especially when things get tough. That is how friendship should be. I, personally, believe that this book shouldn’t be taught in schools because it doesn’t really connect to anything that needs to be know about. The only way I could see it being taught in schools is because of the dog fighting. It could be used to show how bad dog fighting really is and how hurtful it can be. I think that the most important knowledge to be gained from this novel is that dog fighting is bad and that you should always treat your friends like family and your family like they are the most important people in your life. Another thing I believe should be learned from this book is to always treat people with kindness because you never know what they might be going through. This can be demonstrated by the relationship between Ben and Jack. Jack was going through his parents getting a divorce and his dog dying. Ben didn’t know this, and he assumed that Jack was just being a jerk and he didn’t really like him throughout most of the story. Did Ben and Noah do the right thing by exposing the dog fighting ring to the police? Should Ben have been the way that he was towards Jack at the beginning of the book because of how Jack treated him? Was Ben a responsible dog owner in this book?

Braylen

December 01, 2021

Title: Hero Pages: 224 Author: Jennifer Li Shotz Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher Genre: Realistic fiction ISBN: 980062560391 Price: $8Ben, a middle schooler trying to get into the junior varsity baseball team and Hero, a just retired police dog, are just living their normal lives, when one day they find a lost puppy which they name Scout. Ben and his dad think Scout was part of the dog fighting that's been going on. Suddenly, this new kid named Jack arrives. He is trying to get on the baseball team as well, the same spot as Ben. One day when Jack and Ben were practicing baseball Jack asked if he would bet on Hero which Ben replied no. After that, Ben gets home when he meets Mitch, some random guy who was also interested in Scout and even asked if Ben would dogfight the dogs. The thing was, Scout was scared of him for no reason. Since Scout was so scared, Ben wanted to train him. One day Ben was out at a friends party when one day Scout and Hero suddenly disappeared. Where are they? Did someone take them? Did they escape? Does Jack or Mitch or both of them have to do with the dogs sudden disappearances? I chose 5 stars because I enjoyed the book and how the author ended it. She did an excellent job at weaving all the little details together to make one great story. I also loved that she made parts of the story about average life connect right on with the story to add to the plot. I would recommend this book to animal lovers because this book is all about a boy and his dog and all the adventures they have. The book also focuses some time on things like training or how he takes care of the dogs. I would also recommend the book to teens because it talks about how a teen has to balance school and taking care of animals and how it affects their life which they might relate to.If you liked …➔Snow Dog by Jim Kjelgaard ➔Tornado by Betsy Byars ➔Max Best Friend. Hero. Marine. by Jennifer Li Shotz ...then you might like this book, too!

Avalon

May 10, 2018

This book was amazing but I’m don’t like the Mitch part. I feel you ask me it was the best book I have ever read in my life. The book HERO, written by Jennifer Li Shotz, is a fictional book whose theme could be “Defend the ones who mean the most to you”. This book is about a boy named Ben and his dog named Hero who discover another smaller dog named Scout. This dog leads them on many adventures that they will have to face together with each other.At the beginning of this book, the dog Hero ends his career as a rescue dog. Ben’s dad, known as Sergeant Dave Landry, decides that it's time forBen to have a couple new responsibilities in life, like owning a dog, so he decided to give Hero to Ben. Ben took Hero to park to hit some baseball and while they were tracking a ball to find out where it went there was a little surprise with it… A little puppy and Hero wouldn’t leave his side. Ben was going be late getting home, so he chose to take the dog with him since hero wouldn’t budge. When Ben got home he showed the skittish puppy to his dad and because the pup was skittish and had some cuts on him his dad figured he might have been being used in dog fights.

Yordan

October 25, 2017

Goodreads review of (Hero)By: Yordan DimitrovHero is very good book for people who like pets and adventures. When Hero retires he go to live with Ben and his family. They had many adventures together and with Ben’s best friend Noah but one after Ben, Noah, and Hero stopped playing Hero and Ben found a puppy and named it Scout. They took it home and keep it to when they found it’s owners. But they didn’t found the owners. But one day a group of people kidnapped Hero and Scout. Ben and Noah start searching for them. They saw them in a building with so much other dogs, they saw that they do dog battles. They do saved all the dogs and called the police. But in the end of the story Ben gave the puppy to the new kid in his class because his old dog died. I like the book very much because I like dogs and the book was very good I will read the second book for sure. I like it also because they did many adventures together and I liked how Ben trained Scout. I rated the book for 5/5 because I think the book was very good.

Adam

January 21, 2022

** spoiler alert ** *Spoiler* I chose this book because I have read Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine. Awhile ago. It was a good book. I have watch a movie that is similar to the book. I like the idea of a dog that has retired from a search and rescue-dog to have to use his old skills to find a little puppy that he gave a home. Hero and 12 year old Ben discovered Scout he was injured and afraid. Hero is determined to give Scout a home. Then Scout goes missing, Hero and Ben go searching for him and bring him home. So Hero had to bring out his old skills to look for Scout. I really liked that book because it shows what dogs are truly capable of doing and the determination to get something done. I am very interested in dogs because they can do a lot no just for humans but for other animals. They can do a lot of things to PSTD service dog to a search dog for the police and they have their own age to retire. Dogs don't have to be a service dog to help someone it could just be your normal Pitbull that you own that loves you unconditionally and they always will.

Lincoln

December 13, 2018

I read Hero by Jennifer Li Shotz. It has a 4.5 book level. This book is about a dog named Hero, like the title, who is a retired search and rescue dog and save many people’s and animal’s life. The main theme of this book is don’t steal because Scout, the dog Hero rescued, got stolen by a dog fighter and was put in the ring to fight. It shaped the character who took Scout because he is now in jail and has probably learned his lesson on not stealing. Hero is a great dog because he saved Scout and Ben.I would reccomend this book to people who like dogs. I liked the book alot because it leaves you with suspense at the end of each chapter and makes you want to read on, so it is a really fast read. My favorite part was when they took out the dog fighters and had them get arrested. I rate this book 10 out of 10 for being a good book and it is a quick easy book to read.

Lily

February 21, 2018

Hero was an amazing book about animal companionship and how much pets can affect you. Each chapter held many accurate details that allowed the reader to picture the scene in their mind. A few of the chapters had cliff hangers that kept the pages flipping. Each page holds much emotional value, and when the main character is depressed, the reader feels the same way. However, not all chapters had cliff hangers so it was tough to continue in the middle of the story, but the beginning kept me hooked and the ending was almost tear-jerking.

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