On the grass is a sign: "Gardez au chien." When the Air Force offices return with their seemingly innocent questions, the pilot responds only with his name, rank and serial number.
Slowly, painfully, he crawls across the hospital floor, raises himself with great effort to the window sill and looks out on a tidy, neat street. That afternoon, though, the injured man hears the sounds of planes above him, and these set him thinking. After he regains consciousness in a military hospital, various Air Force officers come in to ask him about his squadron, but he is too disoriented to answer. In ninth grade I read my first story by Roald Dahl, "Beware of the Dog," and have never forgotten it: During World War II a pilot, who flies missions into occupied France, has apparently crashed his fighter over England and been lucky to survive.
January 13, 1985īOY: Tales of Childhood, by Roald Dahl (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $10.95 ages 9-up). By Michael Dirda Michael Dirda is children's book editor of Book World.
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