Soldier Dog

Soldier Dog by Sam Angus, 246 pages

A very sweet but also terrible story about a boy named Stanley, who, after losing his dog, feels like he has nothing left.  He leaves home and joins the army at 14, during World War I.  He ends up in the division handling Messenger Dogs, a new idea for the British army.  They are responsible for training the dogs to carry messages between battle lines.  The dogs must be able to complete their task, despite cannons and bullets and all of the other chaos erupting around them.  Their handlers stay with them through training into the field.  Stanley, although only 14, is actually a good soldier and an even better dog handler.  His superiors can see that he is young and try to avoid sending him to the lines in France, but Stanley and his dog are needed, so off they go.  Although this particular story is fictionalized, some of the action is based on a real Messenger Dog, Jack, who saved his battalion and earned a Victoria Cross, although he died in the course of his duties.  This is a good story for kids who like animal or war stories or historical fiction.