No Better Friend: Young Readers Edition: A Man, a Dog, and Their Incredible True Story of Friendship and Survival in World War II

Strong messages of kindness, courage, loyalty, perseverance, and creative problem-solving in the face of horrible conditions, along with some jarringly dated viewpoints. Based on the decades-old accounts of former POWs who survived many atrocities, the narrative tends to make unfiltered, sweeping generalizations about "the Japanese" and others, which will probably require a bit of critical discussion about whether, and when, it's appropriate to generalize about a group of people. One example is: "The main source of fear along the railway was not the Japanese -- it was the Koreans. ... Overall, they were much more violent, cruel, and unpredictable than the Japanese, who mainly mistreated the POWs by starving them and working them till they dropped."

When things are at their worst, Frank considers killing Judy and himself. It's wartime, and there are many incidents of shipwrecks, bombings, shootings, and many forms of violent death that befall individual characters and large groups of women, children, and prisoners, as well as soldiers in combat. Captors are often viciously cruel to prisoners, starving, beating, and even shooting them. Judy is in constant danger of being shot to death and suffers assorted injuries in her efforts to protect her humans, including being attacked by a crocodile. Prisoners (including Judy) attack, kill, and eat animals, including cute ones. Descriptions of horrible conditions include: "If a leech was pulled off once it attached itself, there was not only pain but an open wound to contend with. In that climate, the wound would fester into a tropical ulcer in no time. Jock, the Scotsman, found a leech on his groin early in the march. He had to grit his teeth and singe the leech off, managing not to permanently injure himself in the process." 

Occasional use of "Jap" in a direct quote.

Adults drink and smoke. Guards sometimes get drunk and abuse the prisoners.