50 | JANUARY 19 • 2023 

M

y soon-to-be 9-year-old niece, 
Bobbi, recommended that 
I read a book about World 
War II. She “loved it,” and told me that I 
would, too. 
D-Day: Battle on the Beach, the 
seventh volume of 12 
in the Ranger in Time 
series by award-winning 
children’s author Kate 
Messner, is an excellent 
work of historical fiction 
for grade-four readers. The 
main character, Ranger, 
is a golden retriever of 
immense talents. He’s had 
considerable search-and-rescue training 
— although he blew his final exam 
by becoming distracted and chasing a 
squirrel. 
Ranger is a smart dog, but he has an 
asset that no other dog possesses. While 
digging in the garden, Ranger uncovered 
a magical first-aid kit. When the kit 
hums, he is transported back in time. 
Thus far, Ranger has been on the Oregon 
Trail, to the South Pole, on board the 
Titanic, in the American Revolution, 
and participated in many other global 
historical events. This dog really gets 
around!
In D-Day: Battle on the Beach, Ranger’s 
first-aid kit starts buzzing and he 
knows that it is calling him for another 
adventure. This time, he’s transported 
from a pleasant day on the beach with 
his owners to a not-so-peaceful beach on 
June 6, 1944. Ranger lands in the midst 
of the Allies’ D-Day invasion of Hitler’s 
“Fortress Europe” during WWII.
In the midst of gunfire and bursts of 
artillery, Ranger befriends Walt, a young 
African American soldier from the U.S. 
320th Barrage Balloon Battalion. Ranger’s 

extraordinary sense of smell, even in 
the water, helps Walt save some of his 
comrades. 
As the invasion begins, another 
character enters the story. Henri, a.k.a. 
Leo Rubenstein, a young Jewish boy 
who has escaped the Nazis by posing as 
a member of a French farming family. 
As it becomes obvious that the Allied 
invasion has begun, D-Day for Leo and 
his family means digging a ditch that will, 
hopefully, be their place of safety. Too 
many farmhouses in the area have been 
flattened by errant Allied bombs.
The action peaks when Walt and 
Ranger encounter a German minefield. 
One false step could mean the end of 
them. It is a fearful moment, but, luckily, 
Ranger is able to signal Walt of the 
danger. His training provided Ranger 
with the memory of an acrid smell that 
doesn’t belong on a beach. Ranger then 
leads Walt on a path around the mines to 
safety. 
Ranger soon has to repeat this act 
of skill. After saving the family’s cat, 
Leo shows up and is about to walk into 
the minefield. Walt is able to stop Leo, 
and, once again, Ranger navigates the 
dangerous ground and leads a human to 
safety.
There are other adventures for Ranger, 
Walt and Leo on this day, the largest 
amphibious landing in military history. 
They all survive and, when Ranger’s 
magical first-aid kit hums again, he is 
transported back to the peaceful beach 
where the story begins.
The books in the Ranger in Time 
series are works of historical fiction, 
with characters that have never existed, 
however, they are good introductions 
to serious history for young readers. 
First, as Messner explains in the author’s 

note and reading 
suggestions at the end of this book, she 
did her reading and archival research 
on D-Day and the 320th regiment. In 
addition, she made a trek to Omaha 
Beach in France to see the battle site 
herself; met with a French woman, 
Jeanette, who experienced D-Day and 
the German occupation of France as a 
15-year-old girl; and corresponded with 
an African American family that shared 
personal documents from a member of 
the 320th Battalion, Waverly Woodson. 
Finally, Messner read widely in respect to 
the experience of Jews in Nazi Germany 
and the Holocaust. 
The history covered in the book is 
tough enough for adults to deal with, 
let alone third and fourth graders, and 
this is where Messner’s approach is 
commendable. The author speaks plainly 
of the vicissitudes of war, the racism U.S. 
African American troops confronted and 
the plight of Jews under Nazi occupation, 
however, without the gore or extreme 
violence that might traumatize young 
readers. Messner gives them plenty to 
digest and doesn’t sugarcoat the war. 
Young readers are eased into serious 
lessons about issues that still vex today’s 
world: war, prejudice and antisemitism. 
Messner’s approach works. Readers 
of this book will have a great adventure, 
with plenty of thrills, while learning 
some solid history, all through the eyes of 
Ranger, a remarkable golden retriever.
Bobbi was spot-on. I did love this 
book. 

Ranger in Time. D-Day: Battle on the Beach by 
Kate Messner (Scholastic Inc.: New York), 2018

Historical Fiction 
 for Children

ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

