A Soldier’s Friend
1914. The First World War has begun and it will affect, not only men, women and children, but also animals, particularly cats and dogs. A Soldier’s Friend comprises a number of interlocking stories involving both humans and animals. Animals came to play an increasingly important role both on the Western Front, where the newly-dug trenches soon became invested with rats; and the Home Front, where the medical profession gradually admitted that animals could soothe patients with shell-shock and hasten their recovery.
The main story, however, concerns the friendship between Mouser, a brave and resourceful tabby cat, stolen from her owners in Battersea and taken to Flanders as a ‘ratter’ to help rid the trenches of rats; and Sammy, a terrier puppy with a passion for football. Sammy, too, ends up in France where he is trained as a messenger dog, carrying life-saving messages about impending gas attacks, for example. His job is both dangerous and vital.
Megan Rix’s passion for animals and knowledge about their war-time experiences gives A Soldier’s Friend its special flavour. Somehow, as well as following Mouser and Sammy’s exciting stories, the reader also ends up knowing an awful lot about the extraordinarily brave and selfless actions of countless animals in war-time.
Sara Chadwick-Holmes’s fine illustrations showing how the Trench Warfare System worked, together with her cross section of a trench really help the reader to understand how Mouser and Sammy moved about and where they could hide when under fire. And David Atkinson’s maps of Europe in 1914 and the Western Front are equally useful in showing the topography. Animal-loving children of 8 plus will love this book.
Elizabeth Hawksley
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I think this is an extremely good book. I love how everything seems to fit together – for example, Mouser and Sammy just happening to be found by Ivor and Thumbs in the mud pit. I also like how the cover gives you the layout of the story, for instance: soldiers fighting in the background so you can guess that the story is set in a war. I would have liked to have been told how the animals were feeling (their emotions) during the story, and I think it would be more interesting if we were told more about Oliver Peter’s life. Overall, I would give this 9/10 because it fun at times yet it can be quite sad, too. I think this book would appeal to readers of 8-15 since I think my older sister would enjoy it!
Louis McNulty, age 11
