Gracie

• Meet Gracie Bowen, she's your average, ordinary 15-year-old girl, except for one thing: she's determined to play varsity soccer. on the boys' team! But when her school forbids her to play and even her family questions her ability, Gracie sets out on extraordinary quest to prove them all wrong. Fighting to change the school's policy and facing off against some of the toughest competitors on the so

Now in paperback, AMAZING GRACIE is a moving, funny, and inspirational canine rags-to-riches story. Tears will stain the pages as you read about Gracie, says USA Today. The Chicago Tribune advises, If you're short on inspiration, read Amazing Gracie. You don't have to be obsessed with dogs to love this story (Philadelphia Enquirer), Two paws up (Portland Oregonian), humorous yet poignant (ASPCA Animal Watch). Booklist comments that Dog-loving teens, especially reluctant readers, will eat this up. AMA! ZING GRACIE was nominated as a Young Adult Choice for 2002 by The International Reading Association-proof that it's a great crossover book.

Gracie was a deaf and partially blind albino Great Dane with a delicate constitution and a penchant for small miracles. Dan is the man-sad over the loss of his last dog and trapped in a dead-end job-who adopted her. Three Dog Bakery is the burgeoning and much-publicized chain of canine bakeries that, inspired by Gracie, Dan and his friend Mark founded. A love story, AMAZING GRACIE describes how Dan saves Gracie, the loneliest pup in the litter, then how, over the next ten years, Gracie saves Dan and Mark, teaching them the real meaning of happiness. There's the moment of meeting, when Gracie gets to her feet like a clumsy foal and nuzzles Dan's nose. Gracie's romance with the pint-size Boston Terrier next door. And the eureka moment (born of Gracie's anorexia-inducing dislike for commercial dog food): Dan teaches himself to cook a! nd within three days begins baking the dog cookies that will t! ransform their lives. AMAZING GRACIE is a dog-lover's treat.Meet Gracie Bowen, she's your average, ordinary 15-year-old girl, except for one thing: she's determined to play varsity soccer... on the boys' team! But when her school forbids her to play and even her family questions her ability, Gracie sets out on extraordinary quest to prove them all wrong. Fighting to change the school's policy and facing off against some of the toughest competitors on the soccer field, Gracie must summon all of her strength and courage, to finally show the world that a girl with a dream can do absolutely anything!

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Featurette
Theatrical Trailer

Both on-screen and off, Gracie is an inspiring family affair that turns real-life tragedy into a spirited tale of fortitude. With former Melrose Place star Andrew Shue serving as producer and playing a supporting role, and his actress sister Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las! Vegas) in a supporting role, this modest, $10 million independent production was directed by Elisabeth Shue's husband, TV veteran Davis Guggenheim (director of Al Gore's global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth), and loosely inspired by the death of the Shues' brother, Will. Elisabeth Shue's successful late-1970s campaign to replace her late brother on his high school soccer team serves as the basis for this appealing, no-frills drama about Gracie Bowen (Carly Schroeder), an athletic New Jersey teenager whose soccer-star brother is killed in a car accident. Against the wishes of her initially unsupportive parents (Dermot Mulroney, Elisabeth Shue), she pays tribute to her brother by pursuing his place on her high school's boy's soccer team. The year is 1978 (with Boston's "Don't Look Back" and other '70s hits on the soundtrack), and girls' soccer doesn't yet exist in American high schools, but Gracie's determination pays off, and without attempting to rei! nvent the wheel, Gracie emerges as a satisfying, emotio! nally au thentic story of personal perseverance. In a role that all teenage girls will relate to, Schroeder (a seasoned child-star veteran of soap operas and sitcoms) gives a quietly forceful performance that's sure to boost her Hollywood profile, and the fine supporting cast and a sensibly-written screenplay keep Gracie from becoming the maudlin tear-jerker it might have been. Gracie isn't a great film by any means, but for all its familial heart and soul, it deserves to be called a winner. --Jeff Shannon