“Before Rin Tin Tin and Lassie there was Strong­heart, the first canine movie star, whose real-life career serves as the basis of this fast-paced, dra­mat­ic sto­ry from Flem­ing and Rohmann. In the silent-film era of the 1920s, direc­tor Lar­ry Trim­ble decides his next big movie star will be a dog and in Berlin finds what he is look­ing for: a thor­ough­ly trained, 3‑year-old, male Ger­man shep­herd with a fierce dis­po­si­tion named Etzel. Renamed Strong­heart, Trim­ble’s find becomes an instant super­star with the release of his first film, The Silent Call, in 1921. Strong­heart has an off-screen romance with his lead­ing lady in the appro­pri­ate­ly titled The Love Mas­ter, result­ing in a lit­ter of pup­pies. The cli­max of the sto­ry is a dra­mat­ic court­room tri­al in which Strong­heart stands accused of attack­ing and killing 6‑year-old Sofie Bedard, but boys from an orphan­age pro­duce Sofie in court at the last moment. Strong­heart is vin­di­cat­ed when it’s dis­cov­ered Sofie’s par­ents orches­trat­ed her dis­ap­pear­ance for an extor­tion scheme. Like a silent movie plot, Flem­ing’s nar­ra­tive is full of adven­ture, romance, and sus­pense. An author’s note explains the facts behind the sto­ry. Rohman­n’s expres­sive illus­tra­tions beau­ti­ful­ly cap­ture Strong­heart’s per­son­al­i­ty; their inte­gra­tion into the book’s design is strik­ing. Par­tic­u­lar­ly notable are three two-page spreads depict­ing the dog con­tem­plat­ing and then steal­ing a dough­nut. A touch­ing, play­ful, and sat­is­fy­ing tale of a sil­ver-screen won­der dog. (pho­tos, bib­li­og­ra­phy, notes)” (Kirkus Reviews)