A Reading Vocation

I waved between giving this one three and four stars. It was a little slow to get going, and I didn't particularly like the art style, which, as Ivan put it, "made everyone look bloated." Still, the pace picks up after the halfway point, and I appreciated the book's examination of the ethics of the "space dog program" in Russia, as well as the way the technicians who worked with the dogs struggled between their loyalty to the dogs and their loyalty to their country. At the end, it was a story that really stuck with me; and since I rate books at the end, I went with the four stars. Still, it's too bad that the story took as long as it did to get going; I fear a lot of kids interested in dogs and/or space might give up before they get to see the story shine.