Shiloh (book)

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**Shiloh**
Author	Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Atheneum
Released	1991
Pages	144
ISBN	0689316143
Followed by	Shiloh Season

Shiloh is a 1st person novel by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It won the 1992 Newbery Medal. The movie Shiloh was made after it. The story takes place in the small town of Friendly, West Virginia. It is about a boy named Marty Preston who finds a stray beagle in the hills near his house. The dog follows him home so Marty takes the dog as his own and names him Shiloh. Shiloh really belongs to a man named Judd Travers, who has several dogs he uses for hunting. Marty does not want to return the dog because he fears for his safety as Judd drinks too much and treats his dogs poorly. Judd wants his dog back — after all, he did pay $35 for him — and uses his meanness to intimidate Marty. Marty is frightened, but determined. Somehow he must find a way to keep Shiloh — at least away from Judd.

There is also a historical fiction book by Shelby Foote with the same name.

People often confuse the dog in this story with the imaginary friend featured in Neil Diamond's song, "Shilo". Spelling differences aside, Neil Diamond's song was written over 20 years before the book was published.

[edit] Story behind the story

The story of how Marty finds Shiloh closely mirrors the actual event in which Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and her husband, Rex Naylor, found a female stray near the Middle Island Creek in the unincorporated community of Shiloh, Tyler County, West Virginia, not to be confused with another Shiloh in Raleigh County of southern West Virginia. They were on a walk while visiting friends, Trudy and Charles "Frank" Madden, when they first noticed the shy dog. It had begun to rain hard so they headed back to the Madden house. After changing out of their wet clothes and eating breakfast, they looked out a window to see the dog lying in the rain watching the house. Naylor had to return home to Maryland and did not do anything about the dog at the time, but the incident stuck with her and the idea for Shiloh the story was formed.

The Maddens searched for the dog in the following days. The dog appeared during one of their walks in the woods and again followed them back to their house. This time the Maddens fed the dog, sealing their bond with her, and she stayed with them ever since. The Maddens named the dog Clover. Clover became a hit with schools and libraries in West Virginia who were lucky enough to get visits from her — the real Shiloh. At some signing events, Frank Madden would press Clover's paw into a stamp pad and she would "autograph" each book presented. Eventually, the Maddens noticed Clover favoring this paw, as it became sore from her "signings," and they had stamps made from Clover's paw print for both themselves and for Phyllis to instead use for signings.

Clover eventually died of old age in 2000 and is buried in the Maddens' front yard under a flat metal grave marker purchased by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

Naylor also used the real community of Shiloh for the setting of the book and its two sequels. The church / schoolhouse building has since burned down, and the old single lane, iron frame, plank bridge was due to be replaced as of 2005. Shiloh now consists of only a handful of houses. The area is very hilly, with many winding, narrow gravel roads.