german occupation, 1914-1918

"Patryk and Jurek are as much friends as rivals in the small Russian-occupied Polish village where they live. When, in August 1914, Patryk finds an old button on the forest floor, Jurek becomes wildly jealous. Not long after, World War I comes to Poland, bringing one invading army after another to the village. Jurek devises an exciting dare among the seven boys in their pack: whoever steals the best military button will be Button King. The boys agree. The contest is on. The competition escalates from stealing uniform buttons on a wash line to looting the bodies of dead soldiers to setting up an ambush. Leading the charge is Jurek, who will do anything to be Button King. It's only Patryk who tries to stop Jurek's increasingly dangerous game before it leads to deadly consequences"--Provided by publisher.

"Patryk and Jurek are as much friends as rivals in the small Russian-occupied Polish village where they live. When, in August 1914, Patryk finds an old button on the forest floor, Jurek becomes wildly jealous. Not long after, World War I comes to Poland, bringing one invading army after another to the village. Jurek devises an exciting dare among the seven boys in their pack: whoever steals the best military button will be Button King. The boys agree. The contest is on. The competition escalates from stealing uniform buttons on a wash line to looting the bodies of dead soldiers to setting up an ambush. Leading the charge is Jurek, who will do anything to be Button King. It's only Patryk who tries to stop Jurek's increasingly dangerous game before it leads to deadly consequences"--Provided by publisher.

Stubby, a Boston terrier, is scrounging for food in the streets of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1917 when he is adopted as a mascot by the 102nd Infantry Regiment and finds himself on the way to France and the trenches of World War I where he soon learns to save his soldiers by alerting them to impending gas attacks, and eventually is awarded a medal by General Pershing.

In August 1914, the German army invaded neutral Belgium, the world's sixth-ranked industrial power and Europe's second-oldest democracy, violating an 1839 treaty that the German chancellor dismissed as a "scrap of paper". The invaders terrorized and shot thousands of civilians, looted and burned scores of towns, and reduced the once major industrial power to a nonentity. Belgium was a forerunner to Nazi Europe but the Allies were afraid to confront Germany. The author suggests that had they done so, Europe's reaction to the rise of Nazi Germany might have taken a different course.

After his dad disappears, thirteen-year-old Stanley joins the army during World War I and is assigned to the War Dog School, where he is partnered with a messenger dog named Bones and the two of them are sent to France.