Morris and Buddy: The Story of the First Seeing Eye Dog
Grade 2-4–This illustrated biography reads like a story. In 1928, 20-year-old Morris Frank, who had lost his sight four years earlier, traveled to Europe like a package. Onboard the steamship, he was dependent on attendants to take him from place to place and locked in his cabin at night. His life changed, however, when he reached his destination, Vevey, Switzerland, where American dog trainer Dorothy Harrison Eustis and her colleague Jack Humphrey were waiting to teach him to work with the German shepherd he eventually christened Buddy. The narrative clearly conveys the trials of man and dog as they learned to trust one another, and the beginnings of Morris's work to bring guide dogs to the United States. The book ends on a high note with Morris crossing a dangerous street in New York City to demonstrate Buddy's reliability to the press. An afterword summarizes the rest of his crusade, which culminated in the establishment of a school named The Seeing Eye and the passage of legislation allowing guide dogs in public places. Although Ettlinger's illustrations highlight important moments, they pale in comparison to the appended archival photos of Morris and Buddy. Eva Moore'sBuddy(Scholastic, 1996) covers much of the same material, but tells the story more from the dog's perspective.–Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MDCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.