Book Series Review: Pet Vet

by Darrel & Sally Odgers

87-91 page range

Genre: Children’s Books

Age Range: 7 – up

Grade level: 2-3

Books in Series:

Summary:

It is Trump’s job to help the sick animals and Trump’s dog senses are so acute she often draws conclusions before the humans have even begun to think! Trump tells the stories of the animal patients and their families and provides young readers with animal tips, vocabulary words, and a new understanding of the animal world. All the patients are interesting, but some are more interesting than others.

My Thoughts:

My daughter purchased two books of the Pet Vet series from her school book fair not too long ago: Cranky Paws and Motorbike Bob. She skipped over book 2, which makes me wonder if they didn’t have it or if she was more intersted in the border collie story than the horse. She only had a limited amount of money to spend, so I am assuming she just liked the dog better than the horse.

We sat down and read these together during our nightly reading time and we both loved them! The series follows Trump, the terrior and his owner, Dr. Jeanie. They run a veterinarian clinic and make house calls out to local farms. The books are cleverly narrated by Trump, who helps calm and communicate with the animals. Trump takes his job very seriously and has quite a bit of knowledge about pet health.

The books are great as stand-alones! Each one starts off introducing the cast of characters and gives a brief opening about the pet clinic. There’s even an illustration showing a map of the facility! Both of the books we read were 8 chapters long and didn’t take long to read. And there are illustrations on every few pages to help a child visualize what is being read. It’s a great series for introducing children to chapter books!

I think what I enjoy most about this series are the vocabulary highlights as well as the lessons learned about how to take care of and better understand animals. My daughter wasn’t the only one who learned new things from these books! At the end of every chapter there is a word box called Trump’s Diagnosis. It teaches great lessons that go with each chapter. Very informative and a fun way to learn!

Cranky Paws: The first book if the series, Cranky Paws is about a cat that comes in with a badly injured leg. Though it is brought in by a boy who volunteers for the vet, clamingit belongs to his aunt, the cat appears to be feral, thus earning it the nic name of Cranky Paws. This book is a great lesson in that it teaches us it isn’t wise to leave cats behind to fend for themselves when you move away, particulary if you live in the city.

Motorbike Bob: Motorbike Bob is the third book in the series. In this adventure, Trump and Dr. Jeanie are forced to drive to thier daily farm rounds on an old and worn motor bike due to a blown gasket on the Pet Vet van. Along the way, they encounter a problem with the old bikes chain, but are assisted by a passing biker who has a border collie dog named Bob. After returning from thier rounds, they find that the man who helped them has apparently had an accident, but is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, they find Bob laying in the woods just off the road, badly cut and losing a lot of blood. This one was a lot more suspenseful (at least for a kids book) than the first one!