“A Boy’s Best Comrade” by Lauren Ennis

A Boy’s Best Comrade

Lauren Ennis
Independently Published (2025)
ISBN: 979-8268191622
Reviewed by Demetria Head for Reader Views (11/2025)

A Boy’s Best Comrade by Lauren Ennis brings readers into a small Moscow apartment, where there’s a German Shepherd puppy named Sasha who is startled when Sofia, her owner, comes inside dragging a spruce tree. After decades of prohibiting the celebration of New Year’s in the Soviet Union, Sofia is excited for the new start. Mikhail, Sofia’s husband, comes home and shares a moment with Sofia over the return of a long-forbidden tradition. But just as they pull out the champagne to start the celebration, the Soviet secret police, known as NKVD, come knocking on their door, sending them into terror.

Sasha waits for Sofia and Mikhail’s return after they are arrested, but instead of that, she is subjected to cruelty by the building’s domineering House Manager, Comrade Pavlovich. Sasha encounters Igor, the rat, who informs her that the Party will reassign her owners’ apartment and that he and his fellow rats have already taken up residence there. To Sasha’s surprise and dismay, Igor was right. She finds a way to sneak back into the apartment just as Comrade Pavlovich is showing it to the new tenants, who have a young son named Yuri. Sasha hides under the bed but is soon discovered. Pavlovich prepares to have her removed for good, but Andrei, Yuri’s father, intervenes and sees something trustworthy in Sasha’s frightened eyes. She becomes a part of the new family.

This is a touching story that takes us back to 1938 and tugs at the heartstrings. It’s not just about Sasha settling into her new life with the new tenants, Andrei, Tania, and Yuri; it’s about the entire family navigating a world where they still have to tiptoe in Stalin’s Russia. This is really evident early on when Andrei comes home three hours early from his hospital shift after telling the Party-appointed director that tuberculosis is spreading. To say such a thing during this era of history seemed almost blasphemous, although true.

But in between these tense moments are lighter ones, like when Yuri boasts so proudly about being inducted into the Young Pioneers. Meanwhile, Sasha can feel danger looming for the Rostov family. Her feelings turn out to be true when the NKVD comes knocking at the door once again for her new owners. It’s a reminder all over again of what happened with Mikhail and Sofia. It shows how heartless and cruel the secret police and even the government can be, especially when a citizen voices their viewpoint. They are not allowed to have a voice without being accused of spreading counter-revolutionary propaganda or being enemies of the people.

The pacing for this type of narrative is not exactly slow-moving; it moves at a nice rhythmic pace that feels like a sad song, with turbulence in some scenes and small bursts of joy in other scenes. Other lighter moments that I enjoyed are how the animals communicate, from Sasha talking to her adversary, Igor the rat, to the arrogant cat, Marusya, suggesting to Sasha that maybe Yuri doesn’t want to be found, as Sasha searched high and low for him when he ran away. The scenes transition like thunder at times, then turn to light rain at other times. For example, when Comrade Shaposhnikova came to Moscow to get Yuri and take him back to the orphanage at the command of Comrade Pavlovich, this was thunder for me. When Sasha made her way to the metro station, hoping to find the orphanage, it was a soft rain.

The characters are very interesting. Starting with Sasha the dog, she was unforgettable and persistent about taking care of Yuri just as her owner Andrei told her to, as he and Tania were being taken away in the secret police’s black van.  Comrade Pavlovich was the antagonist that many would love to hate. She was gruff and heartless and truly believed in upholding the views of Stalin, Lenin, and the Party. Anyone who looked suspicious or like they were helping the suspicious, she made it her duty to inform the NKVD.

The stray animals were probably the best characters in the book. When Sasha helped Yuri escape from Comrade Shaposhnikova, they lay low in the train station. But Sasha encountered another kind of trouble when these stray dogs and cats accused her of being a thief when her nose led her to a stranded, good-smelling pirozhki.  It was Mishka’s clan, and they were trying to punish Sasha in her absence. Sergie, a large black and grey dog, and Mishka, a red and white female dog, seemed to be the voices of reason in the group. However, she and her group were also in survival mode, finding creative ways to steal food from vendors, and decided to use Sasha and the boy to steal a fresh pirozhki from old Vanya. Yuri was a survivor at such a young age, and he was also hopeful that he would see his parents again.

It was very sad to see a young child, practically homeless after escaping Comrade Shaposhnikova and avoiding being taken to the orphanage, with his dog in a Metro station. But they both leaned on each other for support and survival. Yuri also portrayed resilience and resourcefulness as he convinced old Vanya to hire him as his food delivery boy. His first day was met with trouble as several boys tried to take the food he was ordered to deliver to an address. But he survived, although old Vanya almost fired him until he saw his purple, bruised eye and realized what had happened. Old Vanya showed remorse and mercy in a time of Stalin’s Russia, where there was very little pity given.

Lauren Ennis did a wonderful job crafting this piece of children’s historical fiction. Readers will be truly pleased with this tale from beginning to end. This story reminds me of Christopher Paul Curtis’ Bud, Not Buddy. Readers will appreciate the pieces of history fused into the narrative to really bring out the premise. It’s heartfelt and touching. A Boy’s Best Comrade could easily stand alongside similar works like Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse for its exploration of the life of a child growing up in a world that has just been disrupted and turned upside down. This book is ideal for middle-grade and teen readers, especially those who are drawn to historical fiction with heart.