While this was a nice book, my biggest complaint is its misleading title. Yes, the series is "War Stories" but I wonder if a child stumbling upon this book in the library or book store would think "animals in war" or "heroic stories about animals." Truly, this is a book for young kids about animals in war. It would be a good resource for a report.

However, I'm still hung up on the misleading title. First of all, it's really about animals in war. Different animals used through the ages are briefly mentioned, including a few stories of specific animals.

Secondly, I have a difficult time using the word "heroic" for animals in war. While I don't doubt that animals can be heroic and that animals trained for war can be heroic, does it make an animal a hero just because it's in a war?

Take, for instance, the carrier pigeon. A huge percentage (I think as many as 90 percent) died on missions. These birds were trained to essentially fly home. Does following its instinct and flying home, even in the midst of bullets, make it a hero? No. True, there may be some pigeons who understood, to some degree, the urgency of their mission and perhaps that does make it a hero.

Only one animal in this whole book really convinced me of its heroicness. A dog, who understood what grenades were, took a grenade and ran with it to save his human comrades. The others? Maybe they were heroic. But the case wasn't well presented. Doing what you were trained and bred to do does not make one heroic.

While perhaps the title is a minor point, I think that it is misleading to a degree that this book may miss its audience and disappoint those who do find it. ( )