A common comment that either Diane, Tanya, Sarah or I make on “Our Reading Life” is how rich WWII literature is and how challenging it is to find excellent WWI stories that can be shared with children. Keeping that at heart, I have been actively looking for gems we can recommend to families that will introduce this complicated and hard war to our children. This summer I had the joy of reading two dog-themed WWI picture books I can wholeheartedly recommend. The first is, Stubby the Dog Soldier: World War I Hero by Blake Hoena and illustrated by Oliver Hurst. (You can read that review here.) The second is Rags: Hero Dog of WWI by Margot Theis Raven and illustrated by Petra Brown.

Last Spring, I reviewed two stories about the real bear Winnie who inspired A. A. Milne and Christopher Robin to create Winnie the Pooh. In those stories, a determined army vet purchased the bear at a train station in Winnipeg and smuggled her onboard the train. Despite army regulations against pets, Winnie quickly became the mascot of their division. Something similar happens in both of the WWI dog stories I love. 

“Of all the major fighting armies, only the United States did not formally make dogs a part of its WWI military ranks… other countries trained Canines Corps to be sentry, messenger, and ambulance dogs. There was another kind of historic canine-soldier called the mascot dog. These unlikely soldier-dogs were strays who usually attached themselves to a person or combat unit and ended up going to war beside the humans they ‘adopted.’ Although not initially militarily trained, these dogs were gratefully utilized by U.S. Forces in WWI.”

Complete with lush illustration and engaging prose, the true story of Rags is a delight to read and share. 

Rags started life as a stray in the gutters of Paris. Adopted by an American soldier, Private James Donovan, Rags has a story much like that of Stubby. Like Stubby, Rags used his keen senses to warn the soldiers of impending danger from gas and bombs. A smart little dog, Rags also ran messages to soldiers in other parts of the battlefield, and he used his nose to help Private Donvan locate breaks in the telephone lines that Donovan was assigned to maintain. 

“Then one day, on October 9, 1918, a major battle began in Argonne Forest. Fog was so thick Donovan couldn’t see his lines. The air was choked with poison. Men were trapped. Donovan tightened their gas masks and tied a message on Rags. It told the rear soldiers where to fire to help the men.” 

As Rags ran to the back of the line, a blast hit and both he and Donovan were seriously injured and their gas masks were blown off of their heads. But a soldier found them and the message. When Donovan awoke in a field hospital Rags was lying with him, and they could hear the return fire from the Allies. They knew their message had gotten through. 

Before Donovan and Rags were shipped home to a base hospital in Chicago, a field doctor removed a shell splinter from Rags’s eye, and sewed up his torn ear and wounded foot. Rags would be deaf in one ear, blind in one, and limp for the rest of his life. Donovan was very sick from the gas and injuries from the blast. 

The ending is sad but the epilogue is very sweet. If you want to know the ending, scroll down for spoilers. 

This is an excellent picture book well worth having in our library. 

((Spoilers))

Donovan never recovers and dies in the hospital. Despite hospital regulations, the staff let Rags come and lay with Donovan every day until his death. Ultimately, Rags is adopted by a family with two little girls.