The inner conflict, which heightens suspense, centers around the several aspects of Marty's moral dilemma. The outer conflict hinges around Marty's efforts to keep Shiloh hidden, fed, and cared for without the knowledge of his family or of Judd. Marty decides secretly to keep the dog, naming him Shiloh. Although Marty's father makes Marty return the dog to Judd, the beagle seeks out Marty a second time. The dog is owned and mistreated by a cruel neighbor, Judd, who keeps beagles for hunting. The seeds of the outer conflict emerge early in the story, when Marty comes upon a beagle in the woods. He has always wanted a dog, but the family could never afford to feed one. Marty Preston, eleven years old, lives a good but frugal life with his family in the hills of West Virginia. 3))Īmong the many fine qualities of this novel for the middle grades is the multilevel conflict that drives the plot. (But it's such wholesome suspense!) Most important, the dog that plays Shiloh gets plenty of cute close-ups and reaction shots.Kathie Cerra (The Five Owls, January/February 1992 (Vol. "Saving Shiloh" is touching, intelligent and admirably thoughtful, but more action-packed than its predecessors, thanks to escaped convicts, a local murder and a truly suspenseful finale, with lives at stake.
(Judd reacts to Marty's offer of friendship by smiling shyly and saying, "Well, then.") This is also a realistic world, one in which every scare doesn't turn into a tragedy, children are bored by visiting their grandmother at the nursing home, and emotion can be embarrassing. Marty learns from his parents, his friends, a veterinarian, a teacher and even a kindly bartender about fairness, prejudice, motivations for human cruelty and the likelihood of moral salvation. Like the earlier Shiloh films, this one is set in a lovely rural world where houses have screen doors and front porches, but there's nothing simplistic about life there.
The little boy who now owns Shiloh, Marty Preston (Jason Dolley), poses the question in voice-over: "All I could think about was how mean Judd used to be.
It's his abusive former owner, Judd Travers (Scott Wilson). Actually, it's not Shiloh the adorable beagle who needs saving during most of this third film based on Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's novels about him.
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