Kate Messner
ISBN: 9780545639217
Ranger is a flunked-out search and rescue dog with a magical first aid kit collar that sends him through time to people who need to be found or rescued - or both!
This is the first of this series I've read, and it appears to be the third or fourth book. Vague references are made to what seems like a gladiator/Roman setting, and perhaps the American West? This one is set in the days of the underground railroad and of slaves escaping to try to avoid the brutality of the developing cotton market in the deep south. Ranger pops back into time on the day that Sarah learns that her owner is selling her little brother Jesse down south, because he's not valuable to him any more. Sarah decides to take matters into her own hands and take them both north to freedom. Messner presents an incredibly accurate book (granted it's light on the gory details, and overall it's more positive and uplifting than a lot of accounts actually were) that focuses attention on the agency of the former slaves saving themselves, with the assistance of kind people across the country - white, black, free, and slave. An even more powerful Author's Note at the end goes into details about the people and places in the story which are real, and about the resources and museums available.
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