His mother was used to a better neighborhood and didn’t like them walking through the alley in the evenings, but Cracker’s muscles were stronger than any man’s, and Willie always felt safe with her. Willie felt invincible as he walked with Cracker. He laughed, and they continued down the alley.

“Shake!” Willie said, and she fell over … no, that was “play dead.” She leapt up in the air and ran in a circle around him. Good girl! She didn’t even glance at the bird as she and Willie trotted toward home. All thoughts of the mouse drained quickly from Cracker. Then he said, “Good girl,” rubbing Cracker’s head. Huh? Cracker looked at Willie sorrowfully: Why had he made the mouse go away? Willie picked up a stick and poked at the mouse, sending it scampering. “It’s just a mouse,” Willie said, out of breath from chasing her. There was nothing in the world except for her and that mouse. She reached her paw into a loose area of chain near the ground, but the mouse sat just out of reach. She thought she could just taste his fur … mmmm. She even licked the fence in the place where the mouse had slipped through. She reared up and pawed higher on the fence, pushing wildly at the metal to search for weakness.

She bounded forward and leapt through the air just as the mouse slipped through a chain-link fence. The mouse had a head start, but she would catch him. Somewhere in the background she heard a voice calling, “Cracker! Cra-a-a-acker! Cracker!” She hopped to her feet to attack it-and spotted a mouse! Alive! This was for real! She took off. It might have been dead for a week, but who cared? She would kill it again. She growled more, then leaned the side of her head on the asphalt, staring right into its face. When it plopped down, she pushed at it with a paw. She picked it up between the tips of her front teeth and flipped it into the air, growling as it sailed above her. GRRRR! FOR I AM THE ALL-POWERFUL CRACKER! Cracker spotted a bird carcass lying in the alley. To the brave dogs and men who served together in Vietnam To my editor, enforcer, and great friend, Caitlyn Dlouhy, and German shepherd dog-War use-Juvenile fiction. Summary: A young soldier in Vietnam bonds with his bomb-sniffing dog.ġ. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataĬracker!: the best dog in Vietnam/Cynthia Kadohata.-1st ed. The text for this book is set in Garamond BE. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.Īll rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

Cracker! by Cynthia Kadohata