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WAR DOGS

Name: WAR DOGS
Author: Rebecca Frankel
ISBN: 978-1-250-11228-6

TALES OF CANINE HEROISM, HISTORY, AND LOVE

by Rebecca Frankel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 2016

Although fascinating, this lengthy effort seems nearly interchangeable with the adult version.

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Military service dogs perform a variety of roles, but those trained to sniff out IEDs are the primary focus of this effort.

Like so many recent nonfiction works for young adults, this is a reworked version of a recent adult publication, also called War Dogs (2015). Frankel begins many chapters with brief, engaging narrative descriptions of war-dog missions or training episodes, then turns her attention to the details of the stories. Included are sad descriptions of missions that resulted in the deaths of dogs or handlers. One long section focuses on the extensive dog and handler training that goes on in a “K-9 village,” a realistic mock-up of an Iraqi town at the Yuma Proving Ground. There’s a proliferation of acronyms and initialisms, all included in a list in the extensive backmatter, and their use adds military flavor to the story that may appeal to some readers, but the sheer profusion of them can overwhelm. The volume is but lightly redacted (a reference to a dog as a “nasty little bitch” in the book for adults is prudishly absent here); the most striking difference involves the breaking up of the text into many more chapters than in the adult volume and integrating photographs into the narrative rather than isolating them in an insert. Sentence length and structure are not noticeably simplified for a young audience.

Although fascinating, this lengthy effort seems nearly interchangeable with the adult version. (Nonfiction. 12-16)

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-250-11228-6

Page Count: 256

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
INTO THE FOREST
by Rebecca Frankel

- BOOK REVIEW
WAR DOGS
by Rebecca Frankel

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ENDANGERED

From the Ape Quartet series , Vol. 1

by Eliot Schrefer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2012

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Congolese-American Sophie makes a harrowing trek through a war-torn jungle to protect a young bonobo.

On her way to spend the summer at the bonobo sanctuary her mother runs, 14-year-old Sophie rescues a sickly baby bonobo from a trafficker. Though her Congolese mother is not pleased Sophie paid for the ape, she is proud that Sophie works to bond with Otto, the baby. A week before Sophie's to return home to her father in Miami, her mother must take advantage
of a charter flight to relocate some apes, and she leaves Sophie with Otto and the sanctuary workers. War breaks out, and after missing a U.N. flight out, Sophie must hide herself and Otto from violent militants and starving villagers. Unable to take Otto out of the country, she decides finding her mother hundreds of miles to the north is her only choice. Schrefer jumps from his usual teen suspense to craft this well-researched tale of jungle survival set during a fictional conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Realistic characters (ape and human) deal with disturbing situations described in graphic, but never gratuitous detail. The lessons Sophie learns about her childhood home, love and what it means to be endangered will resonate with readers.

Even if some hairbreadth escapes test credulity, this is a great next read for fans of our nearest ape cousins or survival adventure. (map, author's note, author Q&A) (Adventure. 12-16)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-545-16576-1

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ANIMALS | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BRIGHTNESS BETWEEN US
by Eliot Schrefer

- BOOK REVIEW
CHARMING YOUNG MAN
by Eliot Schrefer

- BOOK REVIEW
QUEER DUCKS (AND OTHER ANIMALS)
by Eliot Schrefer ; illustrated by Jules Zuckerberg

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A DIFFERENT MIRROR FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

A HISTORY OF MULTICULTURAL AMERICA

by Ronald Takaki & adapted by Rebecca Stefoff ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 2012

In either iteration, a provocative counter to conventional, blinkered views of our national story.

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A classic framing of this country’s history from a multicultural perspective, clumsily cut and recast into more simplified language for young readers.

Veering away from the standard “Master Narrative” to tell “the story of a nation peopled by the world,” the violence- and injustice-laden account focuses on minorities, from African- Americans (“the central minority throughout our country’s history”), Mexicans and Native Americans to Japanese, Vietnamese, Sikh, Russian Jewish and Muslim immigrants. Stefoff reduces Takaki’s scholarly but fluid narrative (1993, revised 2008) to choppy sentences and sound-bite quotes. She also adds debatable generalizations, such as a sweeping claim that Native Americans “lived outside of white society’s borders,” and an incorrect one that the Emancipation Proclamation “freed the slaves.” Readers may take a stronger interest in their own cultural heritage from this broad picture of the United States as, historically, a tapestry of ethnic identities that are “separate but also shared”—but being more readable and, by page count at least, only about a third longer, the original version won’t be out of reach of much of the intended audience, despite its denser prose.

In either iteration, a provocative counter to conventional, blinkered views of our national story. (endnotes, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 12-15)