"My Dog Skip" is a screen adaptation - and embellishment - of a book by the same name. Written by an author named Willie Morris.

Willie grew up in Yazoo, Mississippi. The book - and the movie - are a portrayal of life in that tiny town.

Willie's Jack Russell, Skip, is at the center of the stories and recollections of his boyhood.

About the book, critics said Morris's words were "tender reflections on Southern small town culture.."

Tender indeed. His last reflections on skip stir the heart. More on that later.

My Dog Skip is set in 1942. While war in Europe captures everyone's attention, 8 year-old Willie is having struggles of his own in Yazoo. He's undersized, shy, and ignored at school. His 9th birthday present, Skip, changes his life.

And that's saying quite a lot since he went on to be a Rhodes Scholar.

As a boy, the dogs in my life were, sadly, never like Skip. We inherited our first dog from my grandparents. But by the time she made it into our house, she was old and overweight, and spent most of her last years sleeping on the landing of our front steps.

Our second dog was a deaf, disturbed dalmatian. Upon her disappearance, we were told that she was sent to the deaf dog farm, which was surely parental code for something else.

And then there was Buddy. I wanted to love Buddy, but his time before coming to us was spent in reform school that didn't work. If dogs could wear leather jackets and ride motorcycles and get dirty tattoos, Buddy would have had all three. Even the vet that helped us adopt him wanted him put away in the end. I think he used deaf-dog farm code.

And now to Morris's tender reflections. In the movie, Morris's words are spoken by Harry Connick, Jr. in narration throughout the film. Toward the end of the book, his words are crafted with soulful simplicity and sincerity.

"I recieved a trans-atlantic call one day. "Skip died", Daddy said. He and my mama wrapped him my baseball jacket. They buried him out under the elm tree, they said. That wasn't totally true. For he really lay buried in my heart."

And now, click here to hear Morris's words spoken by Harry:

My Dog Skip URL

#literary memoir

Willie Morris and his dog Skip