Set over the course of several months from 1944-1945, and switching perspectives every chapter between fifth-grader Billie and Diné Marine Denny, Billie's older brother Leo's friend from boot camp. Leo and Denny visit once before shipping out, and they bring an injured dog with them; Denny dubs him Bear, and Billie begs her great-aunt Doff to keep him.

In addition to worrying about her brother, and wondering if her father will ever come back, Billie is having friend troubles: her former best friend Hazel has ditched her for another girl, and Billie tries to win her back before realizing it's hopeless - and not worth it. Fortunately, the astronomy-obsessed new kid, Mexican-American Tito, proves a true friend.

Meanwhile, Denny is in the Pacific, storming the beaches of Iwo Jima and sending coded messages for air support. In a way, it's Bear who saves both humans, and in a rushed epilogue (Billie is in her 40s), Billie (with a dog in tow - Bear's descendant?) visits Denny on the reservation, having discovered his true role in the war: "I can't get over it....When you were little, they tried to prevent you from speaking Navajo, and then the language ends up winning the war for us." (232)

Quotes

"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit." --Aristotle (epigraph to Part Two, p. 81) ( )

Literary Merit: Good
Character Merit: Good
Reading Level: 4-6
Recommend: Yes
Right from the beginning, this book speaks to dog lovers as they read about a dog whose man throws rocks at him so that he will go away. This same dog, once rescued by a Navajo Marine named Denny, becomes Bear, the much-needed best friend of 11-year-old-Billie, whose mother died and father left her to be raised by her aunt. Denny, Billie, Bear, and Billie’s Mexican neighbor, Tito, all face loneliness and being an outsider. Bear, through his physical and spiritual interventions, saves all three humans. Told in alternating chapters between Billy and Denny, this book examines ways that our hearts hurt when others abandon or don’t accept us as well as ways to alleviate the sadness and become strong survivors. ( )