Angus, S. (2012). Soldier Dog. New York, NY: Feiwel and Friends.Fiction Choice: historical fictionALA 2014 Notable Children’s Books – Middle ReadersSoldier Dog is another great war book for upper elementary and middle school readers. Fourteen year old, Stanley lives in England during WWI. After his mother died, and his much older brother joined the army and left to fight in France, Stanley was left to live alone with his mean and uncaring father. After his father completed an act that Stanley deemed unforgivable, he ran away and lied to join the army. Stanley managed to find himself a position serving as the keeper of a messenger dog for the battlefields, but after completing basic training, Stanley realized he had not considered the realities of trench warfare too deeply because he had joined the army only to find his brother, Tom. As he leaves for the warfront, Stanley is worried about what he and his messenger dog might face ahead of them. While in the midst of battle, Stanley and his dog must work together to survive, and throughout this experience Stanley grows as an individual, gaining knowledge, determination, and confidence. Although at times the novel may be a little challenging for some students, the limited omniscient narrator and the chronological plot progression facilitates a reader’s comprehension. In addition, Angus does an excellent job of really getting the audience to understand the realities of war and the locations in which Stanley travels through his descriptive passages that produce vivid images in your mind as you read. This novel with Angus’s examples of detailed and descriptive writing could serve as a model and springboard for students’ descriptive writing instruction. In addition, this text could easily integrate into a history unit related to WWI. Overall, I think that middle school boys and girls will be motivated to read this coming of age, war story. Soldier Dog by Sam Angus was a pretty good book. I really enjoyed the description that the author gave. For example, he really describes the battle scenes well, and that was extremely helpful, because obviously, I've never seen a battle before. The author did a really job researching about World War II, he seems to completely understand it. Additionally, I thought that the plot was really interesting; it "sucked" me into the story. I like historical fiction novels, like Soldier Dog, so I liked this book. The only complaint that I have is that the book is a little bit short, I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it was longer in length. One thing the author could have done was added more background details. Overall, I thought that Soldier Dog by Sam Angus was a pretty good book. 4.5/5 stars.
What do You think about Per Te Qualsiasi Cosa (2012)?
This book ticked me off half way thru and I quit reading it
—Cadkins
I would have given it a 5 but it was just too predictable.
—heeheehahah
