Customer Reviews

Five True Dog Stories

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Do you like dogs? Well I have read a book called Five True Dog Stories by Margaret Davidson. These stories are true, and great but can sometimes make you sad. This book is about 5 dogs, their names are Grip, Dox, Barry, Wolf and Balto. They're all dogs with different things to do. Some are trained to do bad things and some are trained to do good. My favorite part was when Barry goes to look for people stuck in the snow with the monks. I'd recommend this book to anybody who loves dogs. by : Yannis

My kindergartner loved this book and wants to read it again:). The short stories were a great introduction to chapter books. She loved looking at the globe and map to find exactly where the dogs lived. Each story also had a moral issue that was not pushy. Great book for any age.

ISBN 0590424017 - A fan of James Herriot and Lassie (among others!), I was excited to read true dog stories for children. And the inclusion of a talented "bad" dog, in Grip the thief, was a pleasant surprise.

Five very short dog stories, each told in a few pages. Dox, a police dog in Italy, is bought by a policeman who just happened to pass a pet store. He'd had no thought of buying a dog at all - but he did it, and then he turned him into a superb detective. Grip, owned by a thief and a successful thief himself, leads a life of crime until his owner is caught and Grip gets a surprising new owner. Author Alfred Payson Terhune's dog, Wolf, lives with many other dogs at Sunnybank Farm. He isn't very sociable, but he does watch out for the other dogs, right up to the very end. Barry is one of the very special St Bernards living at a monastery in Switzerland. The dogs are trained to rescue people, and Barry is even a little more special than the others. Balto is a sled dog in Alaska when Nome calls out to the outside world for help. They need medicine and the only way in is by sled. The town is in terrible trouble, but Balto comes to their rescue.

The stories are all true, and the reader can follow up most of them by reading longer books and stories about these dogs. That's a nice thing, a way to encourage reading, and answer some questions that the book leaves unanswered - like why there's a statue of Balto in New York, when his heroic actions were in Alaska. Not superbly written, but the author is hampered by the attempt to keep the stories short. The back cover says RL2, ages 7-9, and that's the only thing I have to disagree there. The stories seem to me to be better suited for younger children.

- AnnaLovesBooks

Many years ago as a kid, I received a copy of this book through the Scholastic Book Club. To this day, I still retell these stories to anyone who will listen. The heroic, loving efforts of these canine friends still bring tears to my eyes even today.

I now have my own son. He is not yet old enough to read, but this will definitely be one of his first books. It is truly a must-read, for kids of all ages.

My kids loved the book when we picked it up from the library so we bought a copy for our home. Cute stories with a few simple black and white pictures. The artwork is definitely not the reason to buy the book. This version is very small so do not expect the typical large colorful children's book.

I read this book with my twin nephews in the summer. This is a review we wrote together.

This book has five short non-fiction stories about dogs. Dox helped the police find criminals, Grip was owned by a thief and then he found an honest master, Wolf was a collie who didn't like dogs but he still took care of them, Barry was a Saint Bernard and he rescued people in the mountains of Europe, and the 5th dog story was about Balto, he led his dogsled team on a life-saving mission to Nome, Alaska.

We like the story about Barry because he never gave up. Barry was a great dog, he saved 42 people. He lived with people called monks. He was the smartest dog in the whole monastery. One day, Barry went to save someone, the guy thought Barry was a wolf so he got his knife out and stabbed Barry. Barry was alive for a few months later. He was too old to fully recover and he died.

Grip was a dog who helped a criminal pick pockets. He did it by acting like he was all cute but then he picked innocent people's pockets. Grip dashed away and they ran after him and said, "Hey you, stop!" But Grip never got caught. After a while, Grip's owner got greedy. He tried to rob a stagecoach but there were undercover lawmen so they put Grip's owner in jail. What are the lawmen going to do with Grip?

We recommend that you read this book to find out more about five famous, intelligent dogs!

A delightful book. Easy read. Kept my younger children's attention and they couldn't wait to read the next one!