VIKING DOG

The predecessor to this, Wild Horse, was dependable Western in a boy and horse story, at the Junior High level. This is somewhat younger, and frankly a disappointment. Balch can do much better.... An almost uneventful dog biography about Olaf, a Norwegian elkhound. Olaf, misunderstood in puppyhood, finds a master who understands him and with whom he can be friends. Then the call of the wild speaks too loudly for him, and he starts off on a solitary trek into the western mountains. His adventures are nondescript, his personality never materializes. When he finally finds his master again, and realizes he belongs with Man, the story evokes no emotional response whatever, inevitable though the emotional tug seems to be in most stories of this genre. Balch seems to have missed out completely.