Lamb Lessons

Animal Ark Pets (UK Order) #11

by Ben M. Baglio, Paul Howard (Illustrator)

Mandy's class visits a farm to learn about the animals. But Mandy's partner is Dillon, the class bully. Will Dillon be mean to the animals? It's time for Mandy and a lamb named Snowy to teach Dillon a lesson.

Genres: Animals, Childrens, Chapter Books

109 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review of the UK edition credited to "Lucy Daniels" but was really written by Linda Chapman. If you ever want to know who really wrote an Animal Ark Pets or other book in the Animal Ark Universe, just look at the copyright page and see who gets "special thanks."

The Animal Ark Pets series is for younger readers, so the stories are not only shorter, but usually happier. These make for nice, relaxing reads for an animal loving adult like myself, but the stories tend to blur together in my mind. I've read about 20 in the series, and only about seven stand out in my mind. This was one of them.

Animal Ark, the veterinary practice run by our protagonist's adopted parents, (although downplayed in this series, Mandy is described as an orphan in the first Animal Ark book, Kittens in the Kitchen) is set in Yorkshire. This is most likely a nod to the world's most famous vet at the time, James Herriot.

There were a lot of sheep in Yorkshire in the early 1990s, when this book is set. Granted, there were still a lot of farm animals in those days, but sheep outnumbered anything else. Yet, the Animal Ark Universe rarely had any books focusing on sheep. I think there were only four altogether. This is the only one in the Animal Ark Pets series. (I accidentally wrote Animal Ark Pests series there. Insert your own joke.)

This book stood out in my mind not because of the plot (which really is partly a rehash of Piglet in a Playpen), but because of how sheep are commonly raised. This is the only Animal Ark book I know of that not only mentions, but describes, how lambs' tails are docked and why. They also talk about supplementary feedings.

I think this is also one of the only books in the Animal Ark Universe where Mandy is flat-out told to shut up.

There aren't many recurring characters here: James, Blackie, Mrs. Ponsonby, Pandora, Jill Redfern, Pam Stanton, and Mrs. Todd come to mind. Class bully Dillon and his brother Gary would show up in the Animal Ark book Guinea-pigs In the Greenhouse.

Paul Howard does his usual good job here with the illustrations, being a little too cute with the animals, but putting some chilling expressions on Dillon and his family.

[☠☼Serena☼☠ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cute story.

[Taylor Troncin]

Loved this series when I was younger. Still a huge animal lover and would like to read the rest of this series!