ER Vets: Life in an Animal Emergency Room
Starred Review. Grade 5-8–With plentiful, excellent-quality photographs, this highly visual book offers a behind-the-scenes look at an emergency animal hospital in Colorado. While a German shepherd's life is saved, a snake could not be resuscitated. The pictures work well with the smallish-print text. Photographs range from heartbreaking (the saddest-ever Basset hound) to heartwarming (Shelley, a dog recovering from HBC, or hit by a car in vet-speak) to somewhat graphic. There are examples of X-rays and action shots of surgeries. In a chapter on the history of vets and pets, readers learns about how, in 15th-century France, a sow and her piglets were put on trial for murdering a child. Source notes are appended. A section on grief counseling for families with critically ill pets and a spread on how to put together a pet first-aid kit are included. Well-researched and well-written,ER Vetsis an engaging book on a hot topic.–Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.