Five True Dog Stories

My five year old son absolutely loved this book I had a hard time convincing him to only have one of the stories in the book read during each read aloud time It was a very easy book to pick up and read at anytime I loved that it was small and light enough to slip into a bag for a trip to town The other thing I enjoyed was hearing my son talk about the characters in the story and about their actions Most importantly it wasn't one of those books that you read to your children and have a hard time staying awake I definitely don't mind rereading it

A fan of James Herriot and Lassie (among others!) I was excited to read true dog stories for children And the inclusion of a talented "bad" dog in Grip the Thief was a pleasant surprise Five very short dog stories each told in a few pages Dox a police dog in Italy is bought by a policeman who just happened to pass a pet store He'd had no thought of buying a dog at all - but he did it and then he turned him into a superb detective Grip owned by a thief and a successful thief himself leads a life of crime until his owner is caught and Grip gets a surprising new owner Author Alfred Payson Terhune's dog Wolf lives with many other dogs at Sunnybank Farm He isn't very sociable but he does watch out for the other dogs right up to the very end Barry is one of the very special St Bernards living at a monastery in Switzerland The dogs are trained to rescue people and Barry is even a little more special than the others Balto is a sled dog in Alaska when Nome calls out to the outside world for help They need medicine and the only way in is by sled The town is in terrible trouble but Balto comes to their rescueThe stories are all true and the reader can follow up most of them by reading longer books and stories about these dogs That's a nice thing a way to encourage reading and answer some questions that the book leaves unanswered - like why there's a statue of Balto in New York when his heroic actions were in Alaska Not superbly written but the author is hampered by the attempt to keep the stories short The back cover says RL2 ages 7-9 and that's the only thing I disagree with The stories seem to me to be better suited for younger children- AnnaLovesBooks