Customer Reviews

The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto (Step-Into-Reading)

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"This is a true story about a very brave dog."

It's 1925 in the sub-zero, treacherous region of Nome, Alaska. Two children stricken with diphtheria need medicine, but the train that carries it gets stuck in the snow, 700 miles from Nome. The town's only hope is a 21-team dog sled relay to deliver the precious medicine. Balto, the head dog on the second to the last run, leads his team through blinding snowdrifts and over a frozen river, and around cracking ice, and reaches Nome almost ten days before the expected arrival. He becomes famous: In New York City, thousands of miles away, a statue of Balto is put up in Central Park.

This is an exciting book, with soft, slighted muted illustrations and short sentences, is an excellent book (especially for adventure and dog lovers) for the reader in from around grades 1 through 3. The suspenseful narration and the real heroics of Balto and his driver (along with the 20 other dog teams) make for a dramatic story. 48 pages, includes map of the trail to Nome.

I thought the book was appropriate for the language of most 2nd graders. It was also entertaining and adventurous. The students could not wait to read what was going to happen next. The plot was easy to follow.

Yeah, I know. Some reviewer called Balto a fraud. He wasn't. He really did lead his sled team through 53 miles in subzero temperatures, though he wasn't the bravest dog ever(Togo was), so I took one star off. But his story deserves to be told just as much as Togo's, and yes, I love that husky Togo and his bravery (He lead 260 miles). It is 1925. There's an epidemic of diphtheria sweeping through Nome, and sled dogs are needed to deliver desperately needed serum. But in the subzero temperatures, will they make it? This is an excellent introduction to the Iditarod for children. (Oh, and by the way, Balto didn't try to claim all the glory. He was forced to run, though he was considered too 'weak' to do so. I call that animal abuse. He certainly proved he wasn't 'weak' since he ran 53 miles! Gunnar Kaasen even abandoned him to a dime museum later on! BAD pet keeper!)

...can keep these packs of hardy huskies and malamutes from delivering the antitoxin to Nome during the 1925 Diptheria Epidemic!

No train can get through due to the snow. The train that was originally transporting the medicine got mired in snow, more than 700 miles from its destination. Only a sled team of hardy dogs can reach the stricken town. Balto, the lead dog on one of the latter legs of that fateful run led a team of hardy malamutes and huskies some 53 miles. He led the team through adverse weather and land conditions including blizzards and a froxen river. The curly tailed dog is credited for seeing the medicine through; it is on his run that the medicine arrived 10 days ahead of schedule.

This book will delight and excite young readers who will wait with baited breath (even though they know the malamute team will reach the town like the Calvary). The delightful illustrations make a good thing even better. The history of the hardy Eskimo dog, the sled dog driver and the dog teams will provide a part of history that will be revived and discussed for a long time to come. Adding the map of the dog sled trail was an excellent teaching device.

Matthew Wilders' 1983 "Ain't Nothing Gonna Break My Stride" and McFadden & Whitehead's 1979 runaway train "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" could be the soundtracks for this book.

I bought this book for my 6 year old daughter who loves Balto. I was looking for a book that she would be interested in enough that she would try to read it herself and I found it in this book. She loves Balto and that has helped her spark her interest in reading this book. She needs some help with some of the words but isn't discouraged.
We are going to try to find the statue of Balto in Central Park mentioned in the book when go to New York City next week.

I can't be the only Mom that gets frustrated by this. I go to buy early reading books and encounter ONLY TV- and movie- marketed characters in the books. I would like better choices.

Anyway, Balto was the only Step-3 book in the store that did NOT have a Princess or SpongeBob on the cover, so we got it. I expected to get some flack from the child who is afraid of dogs, but even he liked it fairly well.

Balto is a sled dog in 1925 who participates in a relay. The purpose is to bring medicine to an Alaskan town with a diphtheria epidemic, carrying it through a driving blizzard and terrible conditions. Balto had the second-to-last leg of the relay, but when it was time to hand off to another team, the other team was not there. So Balto and his team kept going. Since he was the dog who made it into town with the medicine, he got the credit for the whole adventure! We talked about the other dog teams and drivers who had to come through the deep snow, and how all those teams working together got the job done.

Here is what the first grader liked best about the story (his words):
+ There is a map. Maps are good.
+ The dog kept going.
+ The doctor helped the sick children.
+ I like the picture of the statue of Balto.
+ Balto was a hero.

Here is what the Mom liked in the story:
+ It would have been easy to quit, but the driver and his sled team kept going, despite miserable conditions.
+ The words were just challenging enough.
+ I liked the map, too.
+ The illustrations are wonderful. The book has fairly many pages (48), but the pictures keep up the excitement.
+ There really is a statue of Balto in Central Park, and you can google it to see the real statue (of course, if you live near NYC, you can see it live!)

As far as reading levels go, I would say level 3 is a pretty good judgment. My son was reading phonics readers and step 1 readers over the summer, and his confidence is building. This book did not frustrate him, but it took him a while to sound out some of the words. I had to help with the names of some towns and complicated words (Anchorage, diphtheria). The rest, he did himself.

Balto was nothing but a scrub freight dog and that is the truth!

In the mid-sixties I lived next door to the real hero Leonhard Seppala and spent many hours listening to him recount his mushing days.

He set off from Nome to get the serum and traveled more than 260 miles in subzero temperatures. His lead dog was Togo.

Seppala at the age of 90 told me how sad he was that Balto had stolen the glory. Seppala left Balto behind because he was nothing but a scrub freight dog. Seppala said he would never have run Balto in the lead position.

After he was already on the trail for a full day's run, Seppala met Gonangnan at Shaktoolik where he took the serum and turned around to head back towards Nome. Facing into a mercilous gale with temperatures at 30 degrees below zero Seppala led by Togo headed across the uncertain ice of Norton Sound. He carried the serum back 91 miles and exhausted turned it over to Charlie Olson in Golovin.

Olson in turn handed the serum over to Gunnar Kaasen and Balto who carried it into Nome getting the glory. Kaasen was supposed to pass the serum to Ed Rohn at safety for the final 22 miles, but instead he continued on to Nome, reportedly because his team "was doing so well" and he didn't want to wake Rohn. Others, however, later accused Kaason of trying to gain publicity by being the musher to bring the serum into Nome.

For their part, Togo and Seppala covered more than 260 miles. No other team did more than 53 miles.

Year's later, Seppala commented: "It was almost more than I could bear when the newspaper dog, Balto, received a statue in Central Park in New York for his accomplishments, decked out in Togo's colors, and with the claim that he had taken Amundsen to Point Barrow and part way to the North Pole, when he had never been 200 miles north of Nome".

For the real story check out Seppala, Alaskan Dog Driver, by Elizabeth Ricker, copyright 1930.

I remember when I was a kid absolutely loving this book! As a child, I loved the heroic tale of Balto and enjoyed the detailed pictures. Now, almost 20 years later as an artist, I still enjoy the illustrations and simple plot. Great for kids!

I teach an afterschool literacy program for children in 3rd-6th grades. My 3rd grade struggling readers loved this story! However, you need to give them the background information ahead of time for them to get the most out of this story. We looked at copies of the original news stories and pictures of the real Balto, read books about Alaska and the Iditarod Race, and learned about "dogs with jobs" before we opened this book. The easy reading level and great illustrations made this a joy to read for my reluctant readers. They wrote a "missing chapter" of the dogs' journey to Nome. Fantastic!

This is the real story of Balto not at all based on the highly fictionalized movie. A great book for kids.