Ben M. Baglio created the brief for two series of children's books - Dolphin Diaries and Animal Ark. Dolphin Diaries features a girl and her family from Florida, who travel around the world as marine biologists and study dolphins. Animal Ark features two children who work together to help animals and solve animal-related mysteries. The books were written by commissioned writers in the UK under Baglio's instruction using the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. Each ghostwriter is named with a 'Special Thanks' on the copyright page.
Using his real name he also wrote the book series The Pet Finders Club, featuring a group of three children who search for peoples lost pets.
This is a review of the 2007 Hodder paperback edition. For some reason, this UK edition uses American quote marks. Has there been a major change in quote mark usage that I don't know about?
The real author is Linda Chapman. If you ever want to know who the real author is of any Animal Ark or Animal Ark spin-off book is, just go do the dedication page and see who is given special thanks.
As to the book itself -- it's cute. It's silly. It's a stress-relieving read. It's better than most anything you can watch on TV. Just go into it with really low expectations.
The illustrator Andy Ellis continues his excellent job in this series. He even gets to go crazy drawing a bedroom of a bunny-obsessed girl.
Mandy Hope's parents own Animal Ark, a well-known veterinarian's office, so she is born with a natural love of animals. Mandy's friend, Laura Baker, invites her over to see her pet bunny, Nibbles. All goes well till Laura's cousin, Tim, lets the bunny out to play with, allowing it to eat buttercups and grass. After Mandy returns home, later that night, her parents get a call about the bunny being sick. Turns out that buttercups are very poisonous to bunnies. Luckily, with lots of love from Mandy, Laura, and Tim, and some meds from Mandy's parents at Animal Ark, Nibbles gets better, and is able to return quickly back home to Laura.