A Good Animal
By Sara Mauer
Published 2026
Read Aug 2026
This is a coming-of-age type story, which this reader doesn’t usually read. However, it was on the recommended reading list from her respected local librarian, so this reader gave it a go. Fortunately.
This book is set in and around Sault St Marie, MI, a small (population 13,000) town on the Michigan/Canadian border. The St Marys River separates the two countries here and contains the Soo Locks which enable a navigable path between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. The author grew up and lives in Michigan’s “upper peninsula” and she know well what this setting means for the characters in her story. She is also superb in describing the setting with respect to its landscape. Both of these attributes enable the author to fully engage this reader.
Everett Lindt and his family live outside of town. They raise sheep, but this income must be supplemented by job incomes from both parents to sustain the family and the farm. Everett’s best friend, Charlie, is in a similar situation, his family raising pigs. Family farms still exist but most can’t make a living from the farm alone.
We meet Everett and Charlie between their junior and senior years in high school as they are headed out to bale hay at Mr. Mason’s neighboring farm, the primary summer job for rural farm kids. Everett convinces his mother that brother Jay, aged 12, can work with them, driving the raking and baling tractor. Kaylie, Mason’s daughter, also a rising senior, and Mary, a new girl in town, bring the boys lunch. Everett is quite taken by Mary while sparks fly between Charlie and Kaylie.
A sizable part of the novel is spent at the county fair. We follow Everett, Charlie, Jay, and Everett’s little sister Katie as each young person takes an animal to the fair where it resides for the duration of the fair. Each exhibitor shows their animal in the annual market livestock show. Everett’s hopes that his lamb will take the Grand Champion title are dashed when a new breed of sheep takes first and second place. Everett tries to shield sister Katie from realizing that Fluff, the first animal she has prepared to show, will be sold for slaughter. He buys her lamb, depleting most of the earnings from his own show lamb.
As a side note, this reader just received the local weekly from her hometown in southeast Michigan with its supplement regarding the local county fair’s winners of various prizes for livestock and other 4-H projects. The variety of non-livestock 4-H projects has decreased dramatically since this reader took projects to the fair several decades ago, potentially driven by the loss of potential project leaders now working full-time outside the home to make ends meet for the family. The weekly had many livestock projects to highlight include sheep, cows, goats, and chickens. The county fair and organizations like 4-H still play a major role in rural life and this author captures the atmosphere very well.
Our protagonist, Everett, has no intention of going to college and leaving the area. He is routinely annoyed by folks with assumptions that he will do just that as it’s the current norm for most young people in his area and in many rural areas. He wants to stay in the area and take over and grow his family’s farm. He decides that his family needs a new ram to improve their future chances in winning Grand Champion prizes and high prices for their livestock. His father is not happy when Everett spends more of his livestock and hay baling earnings on Fluff and a new ram, but is also supportive of bringing in the new ram.
Mary is a new girl in the area. Her single father is with the Coast Guard, and the pair have moved frequently due to shifting Coast Guard assignments. She is a rising senior and when she first meets Everett she makes it clear she’s going to focus on getting through senior year and leaving this town forever with college as her next step. Of course, Everett does win over Mary, and the reader enjoys a summer and school year of love with them. But their rural hometown also has limited health care support which eventually becomes an issue for them.
This reader was enchanted by the author’s detailed and engaging account of a rural county fair and its role in the lives of livestock farmers’ families, and the depiction of life on a small sheep farm. This reader was also impressed by the descriptions of mundane as well as unexpected events in Everett’s life and how he deals with them. We readers are pleased that his view of his relationship with best friend, Charlie, evolves although we feel the pain associated with this growth as well. This reader thinks the author’s presentation of Everett’s relationship with his parents and siblings is handled very well and is believable and moving. Everett’s relationship with Mary was destined to end at graduation and the author’s handling of their situation is both delicate and raw.
This reader is very glad for the librarian’s recommendation of this debut novel, also highly recommends this book, and looks forward to future work by this author.
