This heart-warming story is for animal and non-animal lovers indeed. There is nothing that can be quite as stirring as a story of where the heart always leads to, especially since the movie that was based off of it wasn't the best show of this book.... ( )

For those who love E.B. White and other anthropomorphic tales, this is a good fit. The story has a brisk pace and the adventure of it all will engage kids, even younger kids. ( )

In this story, three animals, Siamese cat, Bull terrier and Labrador retriever went to journey to meet Their owners again. They fought with bear and big cat and meet many people. Some people were kind but some people were not. At last Siamese cay and Labrador retriever reached their owners together. Did Bull terrier reach too? I thought this book boring because it was written objectively. ( )

A classic children's book - or is it? Sheila Burnford (1918-84) has said she never wrote it to be a children's book, and indeed it's written in a very realistic manner - no talking animals here. The main theme is loyalty - pet loyalty to their masters, to one another, and human loyalty to animals. It's all very saccharin sweet. A more believable story would have shown the animals internal struggle between returning to the wild (going feral), versus the safety and comforts of remaining captive under human care (one of the great themes of literature). Alas, Burnford is not that kind of writer, and anyway Jack London did it best in The Call of the Wild. Interestingly though, Burnford did adopt London's technique of describing the dogs actions and mannerisms as a third party observer, and not delve into the animals thoughts (such as in Black Beauty). The more I think about it, the more London's influence seems apparent, Burnford is sort of like London's better half (who was somewhat dark). For what it is, the story is appealing, love conquers all, it was Burnford's most famous work and spawned at least 2 well known movie adaptations.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )

No matter how many times I read this book, I always cry when Shadow emerges over the hill in the final chapter. This is a truly lovely story of faithfulness, bravery, and love. I've read it several times (and was pleasantly surprised when the movie with Michael J. Fox, Sally Field, and Don Ameche did such a great job of bringing the animals to the screen) and am never disappointed. ( )