Robert Weintraub

This is as amazing a story of survival as there is. Captured at the beginning of WWII in the Pacific, Judy (the dog) and the men captured along side her endured years of brutal imprisonment, force labor, malnutrition, disease, and more.

One can understand why some Pacific POWs doubt the veracity of Judy's story - that a dog, viewed as food by many in the area (including her captors), could have survived where so many men did not.

To say that this story is heart-wrenching for man and dog, puts it mildly.

What drags it down from a five rating is the writing. The author is a sports journalist and at times it reads like a sports column - excessive use of adjectives and adverbs distract from the story. At times it spills over into painful redundancy, for example, "The Grasshopper was in imminent danger of exploding at any minute."

So, 5 for the story but a low 3 for the writing.

That said, I would still recommend this to anyone with an interest in the war in the Pacific as well as dogs in general. Mediocre writing notwithstanding, it is a story worth experiencing.… (mere)

The only way I was able to read about the horrific treatment of the POWs in Indonesia in WWII was because Judy was featured in this story. She was a highly intelligent, resourceful, and loyal dog, but then so were so many of the men--many of whom did not survive. I've read so many books about Nazi atrocities, but very little about Japanese atrocities committed during that time period. A distant relative of mine died in an internment camp in Java during that same time period. I cannot understand why a movie has not been made of this book. I kept seeing it as a movie in my mind.… (mere)

A middle-grade edition of the New York Times bestselling No Better Friend-the extraordinary tale of friendship and survival in World War II

No Better Friend tells the incredible true story of Frank Williams, a radarman in Britain's Royal Air Force, and Judy, a purebred pointer, who met as prisoners of war during World War II. Judy, who became the war's only official canine POW, was a fiercely loyal dog who sensed danger-warning her fellow prisoners of imminent attacks and, later, protecting them from brutal beatings. Frank and Judy's friendship, an unbreakable bond forged in the worst circumstances, is one of the great recently uncovered stories of World War II.

As they discover Frank and Judy's story in this specially adapted text, young readers will also learn about key World War II moments through informative and engaging sidebars, maps, photographs, and a timeline.… (mere)