Skip to main content

Soldier Dog

By
Soldier Dog
by Sam Angus
Feiwel & Friends, 2013.  249 pgs. Historical Fiction.

     Stanley's mother has died and his father is so grief-stricken he takes his hurt out on Stanley, driving him away from home and into the British army of World War I.  Stanley lies about his age and signs up in hopes of being sent to France where his brother Tom is fighting. Instead he is assigned to the Dog Messenger Service, training animals to carry messages to and from the front lines. He doesn't expect to be called up with only one dog, but battles are waxing so hot and so many dogs have been lost that he and Bones soon find themselves in a very hot spot indeed. Stanley's story is tender, powerful, and grim. The horrors of World War I trench warfare are deftly painted, right on the edge of what a young person might be able to bear, but are softened somewhat by things turning out better for Stanley and his family than one might realistically expect could have happened.  Ms. Angus's prose is vivid and engaging. No one thinking war is glorious should come out the other end of this book feeling the same way: mustard gas, the painful deaths of valiant men and animals, the mud, and the noise, and the fear make this a good book for young people (grades 6 and up) who are interested in what war is actually like.

Labels:

Comments

Ms. Yingling said…
Definitely want to read this one. Not as much on WWI out there, and it was such a devastating war.
May 24, 2013 at 4:58 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry

By DeeDee
National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Edited by J. Patrick Lewis National Geographic, 2012, 183 p. Poetry In this beautiful poetry collection, the National Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis, has teamed up with the amazing photographers at National Geographic. The result is 200 poems about animals, all illustrated with stunning nature photography.  The poems are well chosen and include rhyming, free verse, and shape poetry. Some of the poems are funny, many are contemplative and all are nicely typeset on top of the full color photographs. One of my favorites is a shape poem about flamingos, with a photograph of a flock of flamingos which seem to be standing the the shape of a flamingo (how did they do that?).  Lewis ends the collection with a brief but interesting section about writing animal poetry.  This selection is sure to turn any animal lover into a poetry lover.
Post a Comment
Read more