Review Detail

Max: Best Friend. Hero. Marine

Middle Grade Fiction 534

The dogs of war

September 27, 2015 (Updated: June 12, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Justin is a bit of a slacker and also very angry at his older brother, Kyle, for going off to fight in Afghanistan. When Kyle is killed, the entire family is inconsolable. Kyle's military dog, Max, is brought to the funeral and seems to understand that his handler is gone, and the family is moved enough to take Max in, even though he has seemed rather wild in some settings. Justin is annoyed at first, mainly because Justin is annoyed at everything, but grows attached to Max. When Tyler, a friend of his brother and a soldier who has come home injured, gets a job with Justin's father, he indicates that Max might have been the cause of Kyle's death. There's more to it than that, though: Tyler isn't completely truthful about anything having to do with his military time, and is up to no good. Justin might have been selling bootleg copies of video games, but Tyler is involved in dangerous and illegal activities.

Good Points

This had a lot to recommend it to reluctant readers who are interested in the military. There are enough details about Kyle and Tyler's experiences, as well as the father's, to keep those readers interested, but there is also a lot about the military dogs. Justin isn't the most likable character at first, mainly because he is so angry at so many people, but this, too, will speak to some readers. The ending, with its action and adventure, keeps this from getting bogged down in sentimentality.

A good companion to C. Alex London's Dog Tags series, this is a good fiction book to combine with informational texts about service dogs, such as Dorothy Hinshaw Patent's Dogs on Duty: Soldier's Best Friends on the Battle and Beyond.