Dog Star by Megan Shepherd

"If we can't stop the rocket, maybe we can get Laika out. We can't let her go on a mission with no chance of return. She isn't like the equipment you have in that capsule. 

She's a living creature."

Nina is old to enough to begin to question her life in the Soviet Union. Her best friend, along with her friend's parents, have recently defected to the US. Nina herself is being trained to be a good Soviet citizen. Her father works for the Institute of Space Medicine. The space race is in full swing. The Russians are desperate to be first. The Americans are planning to use monkeys and mice but in Russia a small stray dog is selected and trained. 

Meanwhile we meet a street dog, later to be named Laika. She longs to become a warm dog but when she is captured, she is taken to a strange place and put into a cage. Sharing this space are two other dogs. One has already been sent into space so she explains the three tests that Laika will undergo and how, if she can pass these tests, and travel into space the reward will be a real home with children to love her.

Bookseller blurb: Based on an incredible true story, Carnegie Medal nominee and New York Times-bestselling author Megan Shepherd crafts a harrowing, propulsive girl-and-her-dog tale that will linger in your heart long after the last page. Laika is a Cold Dog, a stray pup fighting for her life on the streets of Moscow. Then, one winter night, she is plucked from her alley to become a Starflyer, a dog trained to travel into space. Distrustful of people, Laika tries to do everything she can to escape. That is, until she meets Nina. Nina is a Cold Girl, lonely and full of questions. Her best friend has moved to America in a rush, leaving Nina to face the school bullies all by herself. Plus, her father's work as a scientist in the Soviet Space Program grows more secretive by the day. When the two meet in her father's laboratory, their growing bond slowly warms the chill that has settled in each other's hearts. As the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union grows fierce, Laika and Nina uncover shocking secrets and hard truths that will test their friendship. How will they find the courage to chase their dreams all the way to the stars?

Have you ever thought about the idea of warm dogs and cold dogs. Warm dogs live with a family. They are fed, allowed to be inside and even perhaps sit on a couch and most of all they are loved, especially by children. A cold dog is a street dog. A dog that lives by scavenging and a dog that works hard to survive extremes of heat and cold. And it sure is cold on the streets of Moscow. Laika was a cold dog until the day she was captured for use in the space program.

The title comes from the third voice in we hear in this story - we hear Laika beginning when she is just surviving on the streets of Moscow; we hear Nina who is so upset about the loss of her friend and we read about her struggles to cope with the Young Pioneers; and the third voice is the actual dog star - a voice of encouragement and wisdom that only Laika can hear. 

The ending of this book is inevitably very sad - perhaps if you are recommending this book to a reader in your library you might decide to explain this. Laika was a real dog. She was sent into space from the USSR in 1957. An enormous amount of work went into preparing her for the journey, but it seems almost no plans were made for her return. No one knows when or how but Laika did perish on the voyage.

There is a strange but fascinating inclusion in this book - the book is from a US author but she has included an article dated November 27th, 1957, from our Australian Women's Weekly magazine.

Here are a couple of text quotes:

"Nina felt a rush of confidence now. She sat up straighter. 'Yes dogs. I can help my father with the dogs who will be sent into space! ... Through this, um, I can make the Motherland proud."

"In a few days Laika will travel to the cosmodrome. I wanted to do something nice for her first. One night to have a home away from the Institute. To just be a dog; to bark and play.' He knelt down, scratching Laika behind the ears. 'Can you do that for her, lapochka?"

"So many questions buzzed in her head. Their teachers taught them to respect even street dogs but didn't respect the students enough to tell them the truth. Maybe Ludmilla's family had left because they didn't feel safe in a country where information was so often kept secret. Now, like Ludmilla, would Laika disappear forever too?"

You can hear Megan Shepherd talking about her book here. Dog Star was published in 2023 but I picked up my copy in a bookshop earlier this year. 

The narrative alternates between Nina’s and Laika’s points of view; Laika’s perspective is anthropomorphized with inner monologue as well as dialogue between dogs, and this works to the story’s advantage in arousing sympathy for the small animal who was sacrificed for science. A poignant story that accessibly illuminates a milestone in space exploration history. Kirkus

Read more about animal astronauts here. Companion books:

I previously read Secret Horses of Briar Hill by Megan Shepherd:

The Secret Horses of Briar Hill

The Ash House by Angharad Walker

He had been expecting a healing refuge for children like him. Something between a school and a summer camp. But this wasn’t it. The Ash House was like the end of a world that had been left to decay, forgotten by everyone who had ever cared about it.

Sol (Solitude) has been in hospital. He has a mystery illness that leaves him wracked with pain and it is so severe he falls to the ground unconscious. As this book opens Sol has been taken out of the hospital to the strange Ash House. There he meets a group of children - boys and girls - with names that strangely link with their ethos of kindness. There are no adults, but the children talk about The Headmaster. He has been absent for three years but each day, until now, he communicates via a telephone, with instructions for the children. Their days are filled with routines of preparing food, cleaning, washing, and feeding three monstrous creatures called Shucks that live under ash house. 

The sky is empty of birds but the children have never seen real birds so they name the drones that constantly monitor them - birds. Sol has lived in the outside world - he knows so much more about life than these strange kids. It seems impossible that Sol will make any friends here and even more impossible that this place can cure his illness. But Dom (short for Freedom) is determined to have Sol as a friend and then the doctor arrives with the promise of a cure for Sol - but can he be trusted?

Bookseller blurb: A new boy arrives at the Ash House. He can't remember his name or why he's been sent there. Given the name Sol, and troubled by a mystery pain that no medicine can cure, he joins the gang of children living in the shadows of the secretive house. Soon, however, there's more for him to face: the darkness that descends with the arrival of the Doctor...

I never seek out horror stories, but I belong to an online Middle Grade book group and, because it is nearly Halloween, The Ash House was our assigned reading for October. The Ash House is from the UK publisher Chicken House. They relate this book to Lord of the Flies; and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. These are both books that make me shudder and if I had read that before picking up this book I might not have ventured further. Strangely though, I really loved the open ending so reading this book was well worth the harrowing journey. 

Here are some text quotes to give you a flavour of this book:

He had been expecting a healing refuge for children like him. Something between a school and a summer camp. But this wasn’t it. The Ash House was like the end of a world that had been left to decay, forgotten by everyone who had ever cared about it.

‘So . . . there aren’t any adults here? No teachers or parents or anyone? Just us?’ ‘Par-ents,’ Libby sounded out the word. Heads tilted to one side. ‘You don’t have parents?’ ‘What are parents?’ Dom asked. Sol looked scared, suddenly, which Dom thought was strange. His green eyes were wide and worried, and his voice became high-pitched as he tried to explain: ‘Parents – your mums and dads? The people who made you and raise you and look after you!’

Nobody saw the Doctor arrive. His car was black and shining and didn’t have number plates. The children gathered around it and looked at their stretched, alien faces reflected in its glossy metal. Stray flakes of ash were already settling on its roof.

‘You will not question my decisions!’ the Doctor thundered over the outcry. Silence fell again and he continued at a normal volume: ‘How dare you come into the Ash House at night? How dare any of you go upstairs into the Headmaster’s study, and tamper with his documents? No punishment is enough. But I must try to make you all understand the severity of what you’ve done. You’ll face the Shucks, all of you, one by one.

The idea of names matched with this ethos of kindness is an intriguing one. Concord (Con); Happiness and Temperance; Liberty (Libby); Justice and Merit; and the mysterious missing girl Clemency.

Disturbing scenes (spoiler alert):

• the burial of the dead pig and then Sol is placed in the hole with the pig and he cannot climb out.
• when Sol wakes up and he cannot move his legs - what has this 'doctor' done to him?
• the night the doctor discovers someone has been in the headmaster's study.

An unexpected—and pleasing—combination of propitious and disquieting. Kirkus Star review

The Ash House is a vivid and rich read, full of well rounded and complex characters. Each child has their own voice and it is easy to fall into the world that Walker has built. Wound around the striking imagery and fantasy elements of the story are a number of themes including the power of friendship, physical and mental illness and disability and the importance of critical thinking. The Book Bag

It's an incredibly vivid story, the sort with lots and lots of description that is so well integrated into the story that you don't really register why your mind is making such clear pictures. It's a suspenseful mystery, as the reader, along with Sol, tries to figure out what's happening. ... It's also the story of a group of children taking their survival into their own hands, and desperately trying to keep their community together, and I cared about them lots by the end of the story! Charlotte's Library

You can read an extract from The Ash House here. Angharad talks about her book here. What do you think about the two covers - one from the UK and one from USA? I would recommend this book to mature readers aged 11+ who seek out horror stories. 

All through this book I kept thinking of this book I read many years ago:

The Lost Children

Faceless by Kathryn Lasky

"She realised she had entered the twilight world of evil, and at its very center was the dark heart of hatred. A hatred that was seeping through everything good, everything honorable. This was to be her mission now. Her war. To find out the secrets of this evil Nazi regime and report them to His Majesty's secret service."

Blurb: Over the centuries, a small clan of spies called the Tabula Rasa has worked ceaselessly to fight oppression. They can pass unseen through enemy lines and “become” other people without being recognized. They are, essentially, faceless.  Alice and Louise Winfield are sisters and spies in the Tabula Rasa. They’re growing up in wartime England, where the threat of Nazi occupation is ever near. But Louise wants to live an ordinary life and leaves the agency. Now, as Alice faces her most dangerous assignment yet, she fears discovery, but, most of all, she fears losing her own sister.

There are moments reading this book that I am sure, like me, you will begin to think perhaps all of this is real - perhaps this is the way spies work - perhaps the Tabula Rosa was a real resistance organisation in World War II. Of course, there is no way children were used like this for espionage let alone as part of the plan to assassinate Hitler, but other parts of this story are linked with just enough history of this period and so it will appeal to Young Adult fans of historical fiction.

The story begins in London early in 1944 and the final scenes come with the news in 1945 that Hitler is dead. Alice and her mother and father travel to Berlin. Her father gains a job as a motor mechanic working on cars for high-ranking Nazi officers. Alice goes to school with the idea of becoming a perfect student so that she too can get close to the German authorities. She has to learn the culture, the language, and above all she has to be completely 'forgettable'. She also has to know every part of Wagner's Ring Cycle - a favourite of Hitler. Later she even has to perform parts of this for Hitler himself. 

Here is the full review/plot summary from Publisher's Weekly (quoted by Kathryn Lasky on her blog):

Set during WWII, Newbery Honoree Lasky’s intense historical drama follows a white family of spies whose tradition of serving Great Britain dates back to Henry VIII. Thirteen-year-old Alice Winfield has for years trained for her first A-level mission, and her celebrated older sister, Louise, once promised to be her guide. But when Louise opts out of the family business, only Alice and her mother join the teens’ undercover father on a secret mission in Berlin: taking down Hitler. Upon arrival, Alice becomes Ute, a German girl “certified to be... Aryan, with no contamination of foreign blood.” As Alice works to achieve high marks in school and remain as unnoticeable and unmemorable as the “tabula rasas” from which she is descended, she finds herself dangerously drawn to an unhoused boy. With a well-detailed historical backdrop and a puzzling familial mystery, this novel delivers intrigue via tense scenes involving Hitler himself. Albeit fictional, this up-close glimpse at the historical figure’s inner circle and last days centers an unnervingly calm protagonist maintaining an elaborate ruse while navigating the increasingly dangerous streets of Berlin, where knowing who is friend and foe determines survival.

Fascinating and riveting, especially for history buffs and spy aficionados. Kirkus

Take a look at this review from the Jewish Book Council and this one from the Historical Novel Society.

I did enjoy Faceless but it is a long book with nearly 300 pages of very small print. I think it will best suit readers aged 12+. Parts of the plot from Faceless do overlap with the two books I have put as companion titles - All the Beautiful Things and Max in the House of Spies (or more specifically the sequel Max in the Land of Lies). 

Kathryn Lasky comes from a Jewish family. Here are three other Young Adult books she has written about World War II and which can be linked with Faceless.

Companion books:

All the Beautiful Things

Max in the House of Spies

Kathryn Lasky has a huge and impressive body of work - over 100 books. I think the first book I read by Kathryn Lasky was Night Journey. In 1985 in one of my first school libraries the Principal (without reference to the Teacher-Librarian) ordered nearly every book from the Puffin Books catalogue. The Night Journey was published in 1981 so it was among the books that arrived from a distant bookshop. In some ways having him order all of these books was very frustrating but now I realise it gave me the opportunity to read so many fabulous 1980s children's books such as The Night Journey which is where I read about the samovar for the first time.  I also had her Show and Tell Bunnies picture book series in my two of my previous school libraries and all of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole books. On this blog I recently talked about the first book from the Glendunny series. 

The Secrets of Glendunny

My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson

Reading this book you will quickly fall into the gentle rhythm of the writing. The story, told here by Katherine Paterson, is easy to read but it also offers an amazing insight into a piece of history, especially the history of Cuba, that I knew absolutely nothing about.

Based on the true experiences of those involved in Fidel Castro’s universal literacy programme, which aimed to bring literacy to all of Cuba in just 12 months, this is a fascinating look at a period of recent world history seen through the eyes of an idealistic young woman. A vivid portrayal of the value of education in empowering even the poorest people. Book Trust

750,000 volunteers signed up to teach people in remote areas of Cuba how to read and write. In just one year the United Nations declared Cuba to be an "illiteracy-free" nation.

Lora aged only 13, travels to a remote farming area where she meets a wonderful family - all of whom are determined to learn to read and write even though at the beginning none can even write their own name. Lora is patient and also very keen to learn farm chores so she can assist the family. The materials supplied for teaching do contain propaganda about Castro but Katherine Paterson does not dwell on this. For myself, I was curious to see these primers used by the young teachers. As a reader I was totally caught up in watching Lora work and live with this family. Some learn quickly others have to work very hard and the whole time Lora shows a quiet wisdom well beyond her years. Katherine Paterson also creates just the right amount of tension in her story when we read that a year ago another young volunteer eighteen year old Conrado Benitez was murdered by insurgents. Lora's team are named after this young man. "Conrado Benitez Brigadistas—100,000 young volunteers (ages 10–19) who left school to live and work with students in the countryside." All of the young teachers are on edge throughout the year knowing these insurgents are still very active. 

Here are some text quotes:

"Even if they didn't like me, they had asked for a teacher and volunteered to take one into their home - so they must want to learn - they must want to be able to read and write. ... But was I up to the task of teaching them?"

"Step by step, students would move from learning vowels and consonants to learning words, short phrases, then sentences. At the same time the lessons would help our students understand about our country after the revolution - about land reform, cooperative stories, the conversion of buildings that once belonged to the rich into homes and schools for the poor."

"I learned a lot that day - how to fill the large cans with water from the river ... how to boil coffee, how to wash clothes on the rocks by the river, ... how to feed the chickens and the goats and the oxen, how to prepare a meal. I would even learn how to skilfully milk a goat, cut corn with a machete, ride a horse, and plow a field behind a team of oxen."

Publisher blurb: When thirteen-year-old Lora tells her parents that she wants to join Premier Castro’s army of young literacy teachers, her mother screeches to high heaven, and her father roars like a lion. Lora has barely been outside of Havana — why would she throw away her life in a remote shack with no electricity, sleeping on a hammock in somebody’s kitchen? But Lora is stubborn: didn’t her parents teach her to share what she has with someone in need? Surprisingly, Lora’s abuela takes her side, even as she makes Lora promise to come home if things get too hard. But how will Lora know for sure when that time has come? Shining light on a little-known moment in history, Katherine Paterson traces a young teen’s coming-of-age journey from a sheltered life to a singular mission: teaching fellow Cubans of all ages to read and write, while helping with the work of their daily lives and sharing the dangers posed by counterrevolutionaries hiding in the hills nearby.

Readers should not expect an action-packed tale, but the writing is straightforward and moves at a swift pace. ...  Paterson offers a glimpse of the daily life of a brigadista, redressing the cursory associations many have about Castro’s Cuba. Hers is a positive study of an amazing moment in history that nonetheless acknowledges the darker political machinations at play. Kirkus

Foremost this is an engaging story about a young girl asserting her independence at a time of change and following through with her convictions. A strong message to share with young girls, especially. Just Imagine

Here is an interview with Katherine Paterson where she talks about this book. The video is 40 minutes but it is well worth taking the time to listen.  You can read here why Katherine Paterson wrote this book. Read more about the literacy program in 1961 here. Five Questions plus one with Katherine Paterson. 

The endorsement on the back of this book is so wonderful - it is from an actual brigadista. Emilia says: "it was an experience of solidarity, in the very best sense of what each of us as a human being has to offer."

When I was helping a friend re-shelve her extensive book collection recently we discovered she had two copies of My Brigadista Year and so she offered this copy to me. This is the real joy of reading - walking for a few hours in the shoes of another person. Lora is a quiet hero and I am thrilled to have discovered her story. 

Here are some quotes from the book review by Dr Robin Morrow for Magpies Magazine (Paterson, Katherine (My Brigadista Year) Magpies Vol.33 No.1 March 2018 p.37):

The arresting cover accurately signals the content of this book. A bright-eyed girl strides purposefully forward, clad in khaki uniform, carrying not a gun but books and pencil, against a background of workers in the fields. 

With short sentences and plenty of dialogue, veteran storyteller Katherine Paterson uses Lora’s first-person narration to draw the reader into this tale of resilience and deep change ...

This late-career book from Katherine Paterson shows she has retained her courage, deft touch and depth of feeling.

Companion books set in Cuba:

The Middler by Kirsty Applebaum

This book is breathtaking and brilliant. I loved every page! 

Maggie is a middle child. In her small community people live their lives in great fear of the Quiet War. Every day the children sing songs and recite words reinforcing the only way to stay safe. 

Our eldest are heroes. Our eldest are special. Our eldest are brave.

Shame upon any who holds back an eldest and shame upon their kin. 

Most of all, shame upon the wanderers. 

Let peace settle over the Quiet War, truly and forever.

Every family must send their first born child to a special camp where they will be trained to assist with the war effort. In the town people put up black out curtains each evening and everyone follows the rule of staying inside the village which is surrounded by barriers. Outsiders are dangerous. They are called Wanderers. Every child knows these people are: Dirty. Dangerous. Deceitful.

Maggie knows her brother Jed, who is about to turn fourteen, will soon be sent to camp. Maggie is an obedient girl and she does follow all the town rules but she cannot help feeling some resentment. Eldests get so many special privileges. 

"You eldests get everything - big parties, the best clothes, you win all the prizes, you get praise for stuff you didn't do, we even chant about you every day in assembly."

Then everything changes. Maggie meets Una Opal. Una is a Wanderer. Maggie sees an opportunity for glory, for recognition. If she can hand Una and Mr Opal over to Mayor Anderson then maybe someone will finally notice her. But over time she gets to know Una and slowly, one fragment at a time, the truth is revealed and everything Maggie has believed as true turns out to be the most dangerous of lies.

Kirsty Applebaum creates the most amazing world in this gripping story. Adults are sent to work in the fields, water is a commodity that has to be collected in a container called a Cleercan, every citizen is given a billy lamp. From the way these are described I think they might be solar lamps and it is very clear they are precious. Maggie finds a whole pile of them in a house where Jed and his friend Lindi are being held.

"A hole pile of billy lamps? Who has a whole pile of billy lamps behind their desk?  You only get one when you're born, and you jolly well have to look after it because there isn't another one coming your way any time soon."

Cars are also rare and electricity is unreliable. I loved the way each of these details is given as a tiny story fragment. 

This is a wonderfully conceived and slickly executed dystopian novel set in a seemingly idyllic town, but with an undercurrent of secrets to send a shiver down the spine. Book Trust

Careful, serious, indelible. Kirkus

This debut set in a dystopian near future is an absorbing story of boundaries tested, forbidden friendships made, propaganda and questioning, and developing the courage to find your own voice and speak the truth. Library Lady

My labels for this post may give you some further ideas about the themes of the story. I highly recommend The Middler for all readers aged 10+. Here are some companion reads:

Beautiful Blue World

Where the River runs Gold

Forest of Wonders

Chance of Safety

Mouseheart

The Girl who Drank the Moon

I also loved these books by Kirsty Applebaum. She is certainly an author who leaves you with lots of things to think about:

The Life and Time of Lonny Quicke

Troofriend