Strongheart by Candace Fleming

Strongheart by Candace Fleming ISBN-13: 9781101934104 Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Schwartz & Wade Books Released: Feb. 6, 2018

Source: ARC review copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
For fans of Balto and other real-life dog stories, here's a heavily illustrated middle-grade novel about a canine movie star of the 1920s, dramatically told in both words and pictures by an acclaimed author and a Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator.

When movie director Larry Trimble travels to Berlin searching for his next big star--a dog!--he finds Etzel, a fierce, highly trained three-year-old German shepherd police dog. Larry sees past the snarls and growls and brings Etzel back to Hollywood, where he is renamed Strongheart. Along with screenwriter Jane Murfin, Larry grooms his protege to be a star of the silver screen--and he succeeds, starting with Strongheart's first film, The Love Master, which is released in 1921. Strongheart is soon joined by a leading lady, a German shepherd named Lady Julie, and becomes a sensation. But when Strongheart is accused of attacking a girl, he must prove his innocence--and it will take his best acting skills to do so.

Touching, charming, playful, and based on real events, this moving tale by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Eric Rohmann tells all about "the wonder dog" who took America by storm.


My Review:
Strongheart is an illustrated middle-grade novel based on the true story of a movie star dog. We follow Strongheart's life from when he was chosen to be a police dog as a puppy, to his being chosen to be a movie dog and his learning how to play again, to the filming of two of his movies: The Silent Call (1921) and The Love Master (1924), to incidents that happened on publicity tours. The author took information that is known about Strongheart and used that information (while filling in the unknown details with fiction) or made it more dramatic (like the trial at the end that is based on an incident that never went to trial according to her end notes). There were cute illustrations of Strongheart's life mixed in with the text. Overall, I'd recommend this quick, fun read, especially to dog lovers.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.