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Logan the Puppy (Dr Kitty Kat series) ISBN: 9780192765987
Clarke, Jane
Published by OUP, 2018
This is one of a series of books about young animals with various health problems and their doctor, Dr Kitty Cat. She is helped by her nurse assistant, Peanut, who happens to be male and is rather timid. When the story opens, Peanut is making a poster about being careful at the new swimming pool in Thistletown; he wants to make sure all the children are safe. There is a phone call and Dr Kitty Cat and Peanut must rush off to the pool because someone has been hurt. Off they go in the brightly-painted vanbulance, their usual mode of transport, and they soon arrive to find a puppy who is very wet and bleeding. This is Logan, and all the other animals are gathered round in concern. Dr Kitty Kat displays all her usual ability to find out what has happened and very gently begins to treat a bruised tail that has got caught in a locker door. The bleeding is more difficult because Logan doesn’t want to explain in front of his friends. The doctor is very understanding and asks the others to leave while Logan admits that he had been running in the car park and fell and grazed his shoulder. This is a nasty graze, and Logan is very brave while Dr Kitty Kat removes gravel from it and dresses the wound. There is lots about being safe and careful and the fact that it isn’t a good idea to go swimming when one has an open wound. When the doctor encourages timid Peanut to have swimming lessons, he is not happy. He doesn’t like the idea at all, and when he loses his balance and falls into the pool, he has to be rescued. However, he has learned to enjoy the warmth of the water and to think swimming might not be so bad after all. There is lots of good information in these books real proper information put in easily understood terms and pulling no punches. But it is done in an accessible form that will appeal. The illustrations are unusual real photographs of the little animals, overlaid with drawn-on clothing in white and green. Backgrounds, when they are needed, are in the same colours, and there is lots of white. A most interesting series of what are basically information books but with stories as well. Excellent.
Age: 6+