Pyron, Bobbie. The Dogs of Winter.

Pyron, Bobbie.  The Dogs of Winter.  Scholastic Press  312p  $16.99     978-0-545-39930-2 2012  ms/hs   VG-BN     Historical Fiction

This is a novel that portrays the struggle of many children in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.  The economic situation was in tatters, and the safety net for the homeless and poor were gone.  Many parents had to abandon their children.  The people’s hardships and the spread of alcoholism, physical neglect, and gangs are all pictured in this story of a young boy named Ivan Mishukov who struggles to stay alive.  His struggle is even harder than that of other children because his mother taught him not to lie and steal.

Mishka is saved from the gangs of older boys by a pack of dogs.  They adopt him and care for him on a daily basis, like a real family.  Boy and dogs depend upon the other’s skills and aptitudes to survive the brutal Russian winter.  It is this interdependence that makes the story such a heartwarming read, especially since it is based on a true story.  Readers learn that a family can have many different types of members, and embody different types of love.

Street children-Fiction, Human-animal relationships-Fiction, Dogs- Fiction, Russia–Fiction                                    --Linda McNeil

Schrefer, Eliot. Endangered.

Schrefer, Eliot.   Endangered.  Scholastic/Grolier                 264p      $17.99   978-0-545-16576-1         2012        ms/hs  VG-BN      Realistic fiction                                

This story starts in Kinshasa, the capital of the Congo, when Sophie, a young Congolese girl, comes to visit her mother for the summer.  During her trip to her mother’s sanctuary for bonobos, she buys an orphan bonobo from a peddler who is mistreating the young bonobo.  This action on her part does not make her mother very happy because it is against governmental laws.  However, before things are able to get sorted out, Sophie and Otto (the bonobo) become very much attached to each other, and a country-wide revolution erupts.

The political unrest starts after Sophie’s mother leaves to reintroduce some bonobos into a wildlife sanctuary.  The sanctuary is attacked by revolutionists and the servants are all killed.  Sophie takes refuge inside the bonobos’ electrified enclosure until the solar-powered setup fails.  At this point Sophie is forced to leave, entering the crosshairs of the conflict, “where bullet holes have bullet holes”.  She comes face-to-face with what one must do “to keep safe, to eat, and to live”.

This is a story about the problems of a third-world country and the love that encompasses humans (in this case, Sophie) and animals.

Note: “Throughout this book, ‘Congo’ refers to the Democratic Republic of Congo (the country formerly known as ‘Zaire’), not neighboring Congo-Brazzaville.          

Congo-Fiction, Human-animal bonding-Fiction, Revolution-Fiction                                                   --Linda McNeil