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A review by cornerofmadness
Cracker!: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata
3.0
I got this book via the mystery date from the library where you get a wrapped book and don’t know what it is until you check it out. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have read this one. I’m not a fan of war novels and I’m not a giant lover of animals that ‘talk’ to the reader and this is both. Also for those who hate omniscient point of view, this is also that, bouncing between Cracker’s thoughts and Rick (and Willie, her original owner).
The beginning is rather sad, Willie’s family has hit a rough economic patch and had to move into an apartment, forcing him to give up his beloved German Shepherd, Cracker. Rather than send her to the pound and most likely put down, Cracker is given to the military to be an ordinance and other booby-trap scent dog.
Enter Rick Hanksi. Rick is a self-professed ‘generalist,’ a straight C if he’s lucky student who wanted to do more than live in the same small Wisconsin town running his dad’s hardware store. He enters the military and doesn’t do much better there but a friend gets him into the dog handler training and he’s paired with Cracker, who frankly isn’t the best dog there. She is rather wild (and remains that way throughout the book. I think the author is channeling Cracker’s inner wolf) and doesn’t want to listen to him.
The bulk of the book is Rick and Cracker training along with Rick’s two dog handling friends, Cody and his dog, Bruno and Twenty-Twenty and his dog Tristie. All three get sent to Viet Nam and in the same company. I’m not sure how likely that is but okay I’ll go with it. The actual battle scenes aren’t that numerous which is probably good since the writing in this feels geared to the younger side of the YA group. But it also doesn’t shy away from the realities of Viet Nam and how the dogs were treated by the military back then. People get hurt. Not everyone makes it. You can probably figure out what happens to Rick and/or Cracker.
There is a happy ending but it doesn’t seem all that probable but there is at least an attempt to explain why it happened that way. It’s not a bad book but it’s not really my sort of thing. I will give the author credit for doing her research. The book is filled with military slang. And I do like that she is shining a lot on the war dogs of Viet Nam. It’s a story that deserves to be told.
The beginning is rather sad, Willie’s family has hit a rough economic patch and had to move into an apartment, forcing him to give up his beloved German Shepherd, Cracker. Rather than send her to the pound and most likely put down, Cracker is given to the military to be an ordinance and other booby-trap scent dog.
Enter Rick Hanksi. Rick is a self-professed ‘generalist,’ a straight C if he’s lucky student who wanted to do more than live in the same small Wisconsin town running his dad’s hardware store. He enters the military and doesn’t do much better there but a friend gets him into the dog handler training and he’s paired with Cracker, who frankly isn’t the best dog there. She is rather wild (and remains that way throughout the book. I think the author is channeling Cracker’s inner wolf) and doesn’t want to listen to him.
The bulk of the book is Rick and Cracker training along with Rick’s two dog handling friends, Cody and his dog, Bruno and Twenty-Twenty and his dog Tristie. All three get sent to Viet Nam and in the same company. I’m not sure how likely that is but okay I’ll go with it. The actual battle scenes aren’t that numerous which is probably good since the writing in this feels geared to the younger side of the YA group. But it also doesn’t shy away from the realities of Viet Nam and how the dogs were treated by the military back then. People get hurt. Not everyone makes it. You can probably figure out what happens to Rick and/or Cracker.
There is a happy ending but it doesn’t seem all that probable but there is at least an attempt to explain why it happened that way. It’s not a bad book but it’s not really my sort of thing. I will give the author credit for doing her research. The book is filled with military slang. And I do like that she is shining a lot on the war dogs of Viet Nam. It’s a story that deserves to be told.