Underdog — Marilyn Sachs

Orphaned eleven-year-old Izzy is shipped off to San Francisco, to stay with an uncle and his wife who plan to send her to boarding school. Izzy's memory about her past is dim. Why did her father hate her uncle so much? How did her mother die? And what happened to the little dog, Gus, she had once loved? Izzy is determined to find the answers. Children's/Young Adult Fiction by Marilyn Sachs; originally published by Doubleday (Young Readers)