Balto and Togo: Hero Dogs of Alaska

by Helen Moss, Solomon Hughes (Illustrator)

Overview

It's the winter of 1924 and a diptheria outbreak is threatening the population of Nome, Alaska. The only way to stop the deadly illness from causing a full blown epidemic is to immediately deliver one million units of the diptheria antitoxin to the affected communities ––a task that seems impossible given that the only way to reach any place in Alaska at this time of year is by dog sled. The stakes are high, and the snow is piling higher. Will the antitoxin make it in time? Or will the infection spread faster than they can treat it...

Follow along as Balto and Togo lead the way in this race against time to get the antitoxin and save lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250792532
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	11/28/2023
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	470,787
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.12(h) x 0.62(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Helen Moss is the author of many best-loved books for children, including the Adventure Island series and Secrets of the Tombs series. She lives near Cambridge with her family—including a menagerie of dogs, hens, gerbils and lizards.

When not writing, she can be found taking the dogs for long walks, climbing trees, playing badminton and, whenever possible, climbing up or skiing down mountains.

Solomon Hughes studied graphic design at Pratt Institute in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. At age eight, his work was displayed in the Guggenheim, and at seventeen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He looks at works from the past and present to expand his skills and craft. Solomon lives at home with his parents, two sisters, two turtles, and one puppy.

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2023

Gr 3–7—Set in the winter of 1924, this illustrated middle grade book is based on real events that took place during the diphtheria outbreak in Alaska. To prevent infection from spreading, one million units of antitoxin must be delivered as quickly as possible. But due to weather, temperature, minimal road access, distance, and isolation, the serum must travel by mushers and dogsleds. As they journey along the trail, the teams face frostbite, black holes, and trips and tangles. The details of the outbreak are shown through a variety of characters' points of view. After a telegraph is sent out asking for help, a team of huskies undertake a 600-mile round trip. Readers get to understand what the dogs are seeing and thinking as the author includes narration and dialogue from their perspectives. Additional viewpoints—from a sick child, a nurse, the mayor—round out the characters and add drama to the story. Footnotes on the bottom of several pages include detail about word definitions. Back matter includes over 10 pages of notes, reference material, and sources. VERDICT This well-researched adventure book will be out just in time for the winter. Children who enjoy animal adventure stories will love this book!—Tanya Boudreau

School Library Journal

2023-08-26
The historic sled dog “Serum Run” was undertaken to prevent a diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska.

Inventing minor details as needed to construct a seamless narrative while sticking closely to participants’ memoirs and other documentary evidence, Moss recounts each leg of the nearly 700-mile relay—capturing both its urgency and the serious dangers faced by the 19 teams of dogs and men who undertook it. Exerting authorial license around a claim that the “malamute chorus,” a sort of canine news and social network that even worked over long distances, was a real Alaska thing, she tells the tale from doggy as well as human points of view by weaving in engaging exchanges of canine banter: “I can feel it in my bones—we’re headed for Norton Bay. I know that Togo here loves the sea ice, but it gives me the heebie-jeebies.” Still, nearly every member of the cast, two- or four-legged, was real, as were the extreme cold, severe winds, blinding snow fog, and other obstacles faced by the tough dogs and rugged-looking, fur-clad men in Hughes’ stark black-and-white illustrations. The disease claimed one child identified as Inupiaq/Norwegian, and one musher was part Athabascan; otherwise the human cast reads as white.

True to life and compellingly dramatic. (afterword, source list, end notes) (Fictionalized nonfiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews