The author cannot be blamed for the book's occasional drift away from the story of a dog who lived a century ago during wartime, but Sergeant Stubby still manages to be an inspiring tale of courage and devotion. ( )

44. Sergeant Stubby: How a Stray Dog and His Best Friend Helped Win World War I and Stole the Heart of a Nation by Ann Bausum
239 pages

★★ ½

“Sergeant” Stubby was a bull dog mix that played a small role in World War I. Found as a stray in the United States, he became attached to a soldier – Robert Conroy, who later went to war and took the beloved pup with. The exactness of how much the pooch played in the war has been disputed but there’s no dispute in his popularity when dog and owner came back from the war.

I felt like this book had a lot of potential but fell short….WAY short. This is the author’s first attempt at writing an adult, non-fiction book; before this she had written children books only. Unfortunately this shows through as she tends to simplify subjects as if she is talk to a child, not an adult. I didn’t feel this book was filled with too many facts as many of her sentences started with things such as “No one knows…” or “Facts are sketchy….” or “One can imagine that maybe it happened….” And don’t get me started on her whole paragraphs of questions such as “Did this really happen?” or “Did the dog do this?” I mean literally full paragraphs of questions…don’t ask ME lady, you’re the researcher and author…you tell me what happened don’t ask me what happened! And what true facts she seemed to find she just quotes from newspaper article and such. I felt like I could have gotten just as much by find the articles and reading them myself without the filler in between that she offered. For half the book, the dog is barely even mentioned. On the plus, it is a short read. And it does offer a short history of WWI and it’s after affects which were somewhat interesting. Overall, I could see her attempt but perhaps she should stick to children books in the future. ( )