Customer Reviews

Barry: The Bravest Saint Bernard

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We have A St. Bernard and we decided to buy this book for our son. He love the story and my husband and I enjoyed reading it very much. I would recomend this book to any dog lover

This is a wonderful book for those learning to read (my own child is in 2nd grade) and also a wonderful book for parents to read to their children. Set in the Alps and based on a true story, it tells of a heroic dog and the love he shares with his trainer. Together they rescue travelers of a dangerous mountaing pass lost in the winter snow and avalanches. We read it over and over. Highly recommend.

I bought this for my 9 year old grandson who is a struggling reader. I was looking for a book at his reading level for his genre project. RL 3.1. I read it and found it to be at his reading level and a good based-on-fact story. But there is a part at the beginning where two would-be robbers were directed to the barn where the dogs were kept so they, the dogs, would scare them into leaving without robbing the monks. I decided that was too graphic for my grandson. He loves dogs and he lost his dog about a year ago during surgery.
I also ordered Moonwalk, another Stepping Stone book, and he used that one for his report. It was an excellent book full of good information about the first steps on the moon back in 1969. I highly recommend that book.

I LOVE the "Stepping Stones" series of books! Many books have gained the Stepping Stone designation years after their original publication - they are not books written by a formula to gain this moniker. I'm not sure how a book earns this label, but good quality writing seems to be one of the requirements. I did a title search on Amazon for "A Stepping Stone Book," and a listing of over 900 books appeared! The books seem to be pretty much second and third grade chapter books, with many series like the Magic Tree House books (Mary Pope Osborne), A to Z Mysteries (Ron Roy), the Marvin Redpost series (Louis Sachar), several abridged classics, and many other series and stand alone books.

I have stocked many of these titles in my fourth grade classroom, probably at least 100 of them, with quite a few of them purchased before they gained the Stepping Stone logo on the cover. They have filled an important niche for my lower readers, but have also been popular with many of my higher readers who often grab them "just for fun" in between some of the higher level books they read. I will continue purchasing these for my classroom - the nice thing is that they will be quick and easy to pre-read before adding them to my bookshelves!

This particular book is the long-ago, true story of BARRY, THE BRAVEST SAINT BERNARD. In the book, Werner is a 12-year-old boy who lives with the monks at the Saint Bernard Monastery, high in the cold and snowy mountains of Switzerland. Werner helps train the rescue dogs (aptly named the Saint Bernard breed) to find and rescue people lost or buried in the snow. Even from puppyhood, Barry shows himself to be a special dog, much better at finding lost people by their scent and persisting with the search when the other dogs give up. As Werner grows up, eventually becoming a monk himself, the bond between him and Barry grows to be very strong. Barry rescues more than 40 people during his many years of service, and even in his later years, as his strength begins to falter, he is still eager to join in the rescue efforts. His fame grew enough that, over 100 years later, his story is still told.

For a book this short (44 pages of fairly large print with plenty of color illustrations) and easy (listed on the back as RL 3.1), the book is plenty entertaining with lots of "heart." I had previously read Barry's story as part of a compilation of short dog stories, but this book did a much better job of fleshing out the characters and bringing them to life.

My only question is about the reputed kegs of brandy that the Saint Bernard rescue dogs supposedly carried - is this just a myth, or was it left out of this book because it's written for children? Or maybe because alcohol doesn't truly warm a person up, but just makes them FEEL warmer.

P.S. As I complete this review for a SECOND time (due to losing the first one somehow when I hit Preview Your Review), I'm reminded that it's always a good idea to highlight and "copy" the review until it's totally entered and acknowledged by Amazon.

I received the book on time. the stories are short to keep there attention I like the book