Alfred Ollivant's Bob, Son of Battle: The Last Gray Dog of Kenmuir (New York Review Children's Collection)

Alfred Ollivant's Bob, Son of Battle is a classic tale from the borderlands between Scotland and England that has delighted generations of boys and girls. This rousing and moving tale of dogs and fathers and sons focuses on the rivalry between two sheepdogs and their masters and a boy who is caught in the middle. We see the legendary local competitions to determine the next champion sheepdog; we investigate the mystery of the dog who has gone rogue and is killing local sheep by night; we experience the life of the villages and enter a vividly evoked, sparsely populated landscape of moors, lakes, and streams. Above all, however, this is a moving human story about a difficult, embittered man, his troubled relationship with his son, and the love of his dog. As a girl, Lydia Davis, one of America's finest contemporary writers and translators, loved Bob, Son of Battle. In this new version, she has rendered the now obscure dialects in which the characters speak in clear modern English, allowing new generations of children to appreciate a masterpiece of children's literature once more Bob, Son of Battle, is a sheepdog so canny and careful of his flock, so deeply devoted to his master, James Moore, and so admired for his poise and wisdom by the residents of a small village in the rugged mountains of England’s North Country, that young though he is, he is already known as Owd Bob. In a recent contest, Bob has proved himself a matchless sheepdog, and if he wins the trophy two more times, he’ll be seen as equal to the legendary sheepdogs of yore. But Bob has a real rival: Red Wull, with his docked tail and bristling yellow fur, a ferocious creature, just like his diminutive master, Adam McAdam, a lonely Scot, estranged not only from his English neighbors but from his son, David. McAdam just can’t stop belittling this strapping young man, all the more so since David began courting Moore’s beautiful daughter Maggie. But what McAdam really wants is for his beloved Wullie to wrest the prize from Bob once and for all. The story takes a darker turn when a troubling new threat to the local flocks emerges. A dog has gone rogue, sneaking out at night to feast on the flesh and blood of the sheep he is bound to protect. Again and again, new sheep fall prey to this relentless predator; again and again, he slips away undetected. This master hunter can only be among the boldest and sharpest of dogs . . . Bob, Son of Battle has long been a beloved classic of children’s literature both in America and in England. Here the celebrated author and translator Lydia Davis, who first read and loved this exciting story as a child, has rendered the challenging idioms of the original into fluent and graceful English of our day, making this tale of rival dogs and rival families and the shadowy terrain between Good and Bad accessible and appealing to readers of all ages. On The Border Of Scotland And England Beginning In The Early 1880s, Two Sheep Farmers And Their Sheepdogs Engage In A Years-long Battle To Prove Their Superiority In Handling Sheep--a Battle Which Must End In Death.