Remember the news last year? Wildfires–but literal ones rather than metaphorical ones–dominated the headlines. Australia burned. California burned. Odin, Dog Hero of the Fires, by Emma Bland Smith, is a story from that time. But the hope it offers work for today’s headlines, too.

The book tells the story of a northern California wildfire from the point of view of a shepherd dog. Odin refuses to flee the fire with his family. Instead, he stays on his post, watching over a herd of goats in the midst of the wildfire.

As the book’s back matter points out, we can only conjecture about exactly what happened in those hours when the dog and the goats were alone with the fire. But everything in the book is based on the information we do have about what happened.

Miraculously, the dog kept the goats safe. He moved them away from the trees and house that burned. They found safety on a hill of rocks where there was no fuel for the fire. Wild fawns, frightened and separated from adult deer, joined them on their sanctuary–Odin’s owner saw the fawns when he returned to his property.

And they all survived.

This gripping story of duty, persistence, and courage in the face of disaster left me feeling hopeful. The back matter gives more details about what happened more broadly that day. There’s also information about Great Pyrenees Dogs.

A great book to remind us that individual’s actions matter in troubling times.

You can see the real Odin and his human family here.

Another nonfiction picture book told from the point of view of a dog.

Odin, Dog Hero of the Fires by Emma Bland Smith, illustrated by Carrie Salazar (West Margin Press: 2020).