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