War Dogs

War Dogs. Kathryn Selbert. 2016. [April 2016] Charlesbridge. 48 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Rufus's best friend, Winston Churchill, is a busy man, but most days Rufus and Winston share a walk.

Premise/plot: Essentially, War Dogs is a picture book biography of Winston Churchill during the Second World War told from the point of view of his poodle, Rufus. The book has plenty of Churchill quotes throughout. These are set apart from the main text, and are easily identifiable. One of the quotes is:

The road to victory may not be so long as we we expect. But we have no right to count upon this. Be it long or short, rough or smooth, we mean to reach our journey's end. August 1940

My thoughts: I loved, loved, loved, LOVED this one. War Dogs would definitely be more of a picture book for older readers than a story you'd share aloud with preschoolers. But. I think picture books for older readers are important and necessary, and can be quite LOVELY. I do think that picture books can be for everyone--people for all ages. So I'd definitely recommend this one. It would be a great introduction--picture book introduction--to the Second World War, and to Winston Churchill in particular. So if you're a history lover or a dog lover, you should definitely consider picking this one up!!!

I love the text. I love the illustrations. I love how each quote is sourced. Not all picture book biographies show their work when it comes to research. This one does! (Can you tell that I tend to love research myself!)

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 9 out of 10

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews