Animal Heroes

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian in
Orangeville, Ontario.

In 1968, the Animal Hall of Fame was established in Toronto to pay
tribute to brave deeds performed by Canadian pets. Kathleen Bradford’s
Animal Heroes is about the courageous acts of 13 animals who have the
necessary credentials for such an honor. Among other things, these
animals have managed to fight off bears, retrieve people from floods,
and warn World War II Navy vessels of an approaching enemy. While canine
companions figure most prominently in this book about bravery, cats and
a rabbit also have been known to have that special 911 instinct. Readers
of the book are unlikely to take their pets for granted again!

Although Animal Heroes is heartwarming and engaging, its quality might
have been enhanced by more thoughtful attention to organization and
layout. It appears to have no chronology, moving from a contemporary
story to one that took place at the end of World War II, and back again
to the present time. While one sketchy drawing reveals the location of
the Yangtze River in China, the locations of heroic deeds within Canada
are not displayed. An annotated map of this country would have provided
more of a geographical focus for young readers. Descriptions of specific
canine breeds, as helpful as they are, sometimes appear at the beginning
of a story and sometimes at the end. Such inconsistencies are apt to
cause confusion. Recommended with reservations.