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Lynn: Eleven-year old Poppy Ray wants to be a veterinarian but since her mother is allergic to animal fur the only pet she has ever had is a fish. This summer instead of going with her parents as usual to visit family in India, Poppy is spending the month with her Uncle Sanjay to help with his veterinary practice on Nisqually Island off the Washington coast. Poppy has saved her money to assemble a veterinarian’s first aid kit packed with all the equipment she will need and she “is on a mission to heal all the animals at her uncle’s clinic.” Being a vet is much more than using a stethoscope though. In Seaglass Summer (Random/Wendy Lamb, May 2010) Poppy comes face to face with the reality of an animal practice. Poppy makes mistakes at first even with the chores she is given–like grooming, discovering the sight of blood makes her woozy, and wondering how “doing the kindest thing is also the saddest.” Short chapters follow Poppy’s experiences with the clinic animals from new puppies to ducks to geriatric cats. I think young animal lovers will really enjoy Poppy’s animal encounters. The skillful portrait of a young girl’s first independent steps away from her parents adds a nice dimension to the story as well as Poppy’s growing confidence . An additional bonus is intriguing glimpse at another culture and a different way of thinking.

Animal lovers will delight in this rare look at a veterinary practice.

Cindy: Summer starts TODAY for me. I’ve been busy prepping for my daughter’s high school gradation party (tomorrow–come on over!) and finishing out the school year so I didn’t get this book read in time for today’s blog. It will be added to the very TALL stack of summer reading I plan to do…starting SUNDAY. Alice Cooper will be blasting in my car this afternoon! “School’s OUT for Summmmmmmmer.”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 6:57 am and is filed under Animals, Dogs, Fiction, Gr. 4-7, Pets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.