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“Moving, informative, and intriguing.”
Reading age
8-12
Genre
Historical fiction
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication date
January 11, 2022
My brief summary of the book
Laika, “a cold dog,” has always lived alone in the streets near the cobbler’s house, battered by other dogs. Nina, the daughter of one of the workers for the Soviet Union to win the space race, misses her best friend, Ludmilla. Ludmilla moved away to the United States, and now Nina badly needs a new friend. One day, Laika was plucked out of the streets to become one of the starflyers tested in space. Then, Nina and Laika meet, and their destinies are intertwined.
My thoughts
This book gives you a great insight into the life of a dog living in the streets and the life of a girl living in the Soviet Union. The real Laika who flew to space is at the center of this book. What an emotional rollercoaster! There are some sad parts and some happy parts. After I read the tragic aspects, it made me want to be with my dog (Walnut). It was interesting to learn how they trained the dogs to become starflyers.
My rating
About the author
“Megan Shepherd is a New York Times-bestselling and Carnegie Medal-nominated author. She grew up in her family’s independent bookstore in the Blue Ridge Mountains and is the author of many acclaimed middle grade and young adult novels including The Madman’s Daughter series, The Cage series, The Secret Horses of Briar Hill, and the Grim Lovelies series. She now lives and writes on a haunted 125-year-old farm outside Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband and children, two cats, chickens, bees, and an especially scruffy dog.” – Book Depository.
