Posted by Becca
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Geese, Good Read Aloud, Horses, Jim Kjelgaard, Mules, Out of Print, Quick Read
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To start with, this book is made up of three unrelated short stories. The first, A Dog Remembers is about a large, friendly dog named Brad that comes to town one day with his master. The townspeople joke about Brad, saying that the dog is a lion. When Brad’s master is killed by another dog, Brad gets the blame. After all, he’s a big dog. Throughout the story, Brad tries to avoid the other dog and later on tries to find another master.
The second story is called The Black Horse. Jed Hale, lured by his employer’s reward of five hundred dollars, sets out to capture a wild black horse. This is no easy task. The horse is a said to be a killer and Jed has been crippled since childhood. Jed finally trails the horse to a ravine that is blocked on one side by an impassable swamp. The horse gets scared by a landslide and jumps into the swamp. Jed, not willing to leave the horse, must rescue it all by himself.
The last story The Lake and the Lonely Exiles is (surprise, surprise) about another dog. This dog lives on a farm and is quite happy. Then the farmer goes away on vacation, leaving the farm to a caretaker. The dog, who looks like a wolf, is blamed for killing sheep. Rather than kill the dog, the caretaker does what he thinks is the easy way out and dumps the dog on a lonely road. The dog ends up near a lake and adopts an injured goose as a companion.
I can’t decide which story I like the most. There are only two animal characters that have names. In the first story there’s Brad and in the third there is a mule named Adolph Hitler. I don’t believe that there is any bad language in any of these stories. This is a short book, but it is also very enjoyable.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: Adventure, Fiction, Incredibook!, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Brian Jacques, Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, Dogs, Long Read, Sad, Seafaring, Snakes
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Ben and his black Labrador, Ned, becalmed in the Mediterranean Sea, are captured by Arabian slavers. Ned is thrown overboard and left to drown, but he tries to follow his master. Ben and three other young people are sold to Al Misurata, the most feared pirate on the Barbary Coast. Ben creates a strange fascination for Al Misurata, but when Ben speaks out against the pirate’s approval of slavery, he finds himself in very deep trouble. Meanwhile, the almost-drowned Ned is rescued by Herr Otto Kassel, the strongman in the traveling Rizzoli troupe. Fortunately, Al Misurata’s men capture the troupe, reuniting Ben and Ned. Al Misurata keeps up a pretense of just wanting to help the Rizzoli troupe, but Ned uncovers a plot to sell the troupe as slaves. Ben and his faithful hound determine to help the Rizzolis at whatever cost.
Hold onto your hats, friends, this is quite a tale. Like all Brian Jacques’ books, it is packed full of humor, memorable characters and rip-roaring, swashbuckling, edge-of-your-chair adventure. The review only tells about half of the story. So many things happen during Ben’s efforts to save the troupe! Pirates, smugglers, spies, raiders, a shark… This is a great addition to Castaways of the Flying Dutchman and The Angel’s Command.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Bears, Cats, Dogs, Donkeys, Elephants, Frogs, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Mark Twain, Out of Print
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This book is collection of several short stories by Mark Twain. The highlights include the title story, about a man who bets on a frog jumping race; and The Bad Little Boy, a cynical tale of a boy who is very bad, and yet has the best of luck.
If you like your humor a bit on the cynical side (I do), this one is for you. Otherwise, you’ll probably dislike these five stories. The link to Amazon is a different book, with several more stories in it. I don’t know what they are, but it was the only one I could find.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: Adventure, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Moose, Scott O’Dell, Sports
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Bright Dawn is an Eskimo girl whose father, Bartok, is a seal hunter. When Bartok narrowly escapes death by a hunting accident, losing four fingers in the process, some men approach him to run in the Iditarod dogsled race. He refuses, but says that Bright Dawn will do it. After some vigorous training, Bright Dawn and her team of dogs, including Black Star, who is mostly wolf, set out on the biggest adventure of their lives.
It’s interesting to get this first-hand look at what it’s like to drive a dogsled. I don’t think I could do it. There are some Eskimo superstitions in here. But it’s not your ordinary girl/dog hero story. The way the race ends is unexpected.
Posted by Ruth
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fiction, Mysteries, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Horses, Jim Kjelgaard, Out of Print
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Trailing Trouble is “an adventure-mystery about a young game warden, his pinto pony, and Smoky, the dog with ‘a nose for trouble.'” Many people think it would be a good idea to make a National Park of the Gistache, but somebody obviously doesn’t share their sentiments. Bad things start to happen, and Tom Rainse thinks that this is more than the usual small band of poachers…
Well, I can’t say much more, because, after all, this is a mystery. I wouldn’t want to spoil anything, would I? Another fun Kjelgaard book, overall. The dialogue between Tom and his friend, Buck, is very comical at times. I am sorry to say, though, that Trailing Trouble ends just as abruptly as some of the other Kjelgaards. The climax occurs at the third paragraph from the end. But that’s okay. It still works.
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