MMGM - SAVING ZASHA

Saving Zasha

Randi Barrow

Scholastic 2011

This story takes place post WWII Russia. Thirteen-year-old Mikhail finds a dying man and his German Shepherd, Zasha. Mikhail's mother was unable to save the man. They took his body to town to turn him into the police, but the children convinced their mother to let them keep Zasha. The father in the story was a soldier and had been missing for two years, but Mikhail and his family still held hope for his return.

There were hardly any dogs in Russia after the war. Many were lost in combat, to starvation and in the slaughter of German dogs. They had to keep Zasha hidden from the soldiers and from dog thieves who sold them on the black market.


People began to suspect that they had a dog (dog thieves,  Dimitri, the dog breeder and a young girl named Katia) and it became harder and harder to keep their secret of having Kasha, who they had just discovered was pregnant.

I loved this book. The author did a wonderful job of getting you to love Zasha and I was worried about her well being throughout the story. But I thought the ending was a little abrupt and too easily wrapped up. I wanted her to go just a little farther before ending the story.

If you like historical fiction and if you like dogs, you will like this story.

I read somewhere that if you are writing a children's story, you should have a dog as one of your characters. I agree and I have used that tip in my writing as well, and this author did a wonderful job with Saving Zasha.

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