A Soldier’s Friend

Megan Rix's A Soldier's Friend is a First World War animal story for 8 year olds about an abandoned puppy and a fearless grey cat who become the best of friends.

What happens

It starts in Battersea, London. A little shaggy puppy is tied to a post outside a factory, and his owner simply walks away. He waits and waits. Then a thunderstorm comes and he panics.

Luckily, Mouser finds him. She's a big grey tabby who isn't scared of anything (and only lets people stroke her when SHE feels like it). She nudges the pup out of the way of a horse and cart and curls up with him in a blackberry bush until the storm passes.

Mouser belongs to Lizzie and Arthur. Their dad died a few years ago, and their friend Oliver, who loves football and animals, has become like family. But the war has started, and Oliver is leaving for the front with his mates from the local football team.

Then Mouser goes missing. Two nasty older boys have been catching cats in a sack to sell to the army as rat-catchers in the trenches. The puppy runs to fetch help, and Lizzie and Arthur end up at Battersea Dogs Home, where they name him Sammy.

Soon Mouser is on a boat across the Channel, and later Sammy heads for the front too.

The best bit is how much time the story spends with the animals. You see the world through the puppy's eyes. His hunger. His terror of thunder. His joy chasing squirrels in the park. And Mouser is such a character. It's lovely watching these two very unlikely friends look after each other.

You also learn loads about the time without it ever feeling like a lesson. Women making ammunition in the factories. A suffragette nurse who volunteers with the dogs. Cats sent to catch rats in the trenches.

Is it upsetting? In places, yes. One of the boys plans to sell the puppy to a dog-fighting ring. There's talk of poison gas. And the later chapters are set on the front line, where the animals are under fire. If your reader finds animals in danger hard to read about, it's one to share.

What to read next

If they want more of Megan Rix's brave animals, try The Victory Dogs. It's set in London in the next war, where a boy called Jack is off to the army just as his dog Misty is about to have puppies.