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Zip & Milly: Big Water EPISODE 1
Zip and Milly is a story of adventures of two Spaniel dogs, published week by week.
This is Episode 1
Two purebred Spaniels Zip and Milly and their Human—a quietly famous scientist—moved to America and bought a house in tiny Southern Town of Ducklingburg, on a sleepy White Goose Lane.
The Spaniels immediately made friends with the locals—the family of Fox Theodore who, just like the Spaniels, understood Human language perfectly, even though none could speak. They were, after all, just animals.
The life with Humans turned out to be full of adventures. Zip, Milly, and the Fox got sucked into Human problems. It all started with the natural disaster—the flood, but what made matters much worse was the man-made disasters.
This is Episode 1
Two purebred Spaniels Zip and Milly and their Human—a quietly famous scientist—moved to America and bought a house in tiny Southern Town of Ducklingburg, on a sleepy White Goose Lane.
The Spaniels immediately made friends with the locals—the family of Fox Theodore who, just like the Spaniels, understood Human language perfectly, even though none could speak. They were, after all, just animals.
The life with Humans turned out to be full of adventures. Zip, Milly, and the Fox got sucked into Human problems. It all started with the natural disaster—the flood, but what made matters much worse was the man-made disasters.
84 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 14, 2018
2 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Alex Valentine
8 books9 followersDr. Alex Valentine writes what she knows: a little about law, a little about science, a little about love, greed, jealousy and other human conditions — and a lot about Spaniels, Foxes, Boxers and Cats — both black and ginger.
Dr. Valentine's education includes Master's in Journalism, Ph.D. in literature and humanities, and a law degree. Her experience includes twenty-five years as a journalist, working for newspapers and TV, and seventeen years as a lawyer-litigator. Alex is not one person.
ZIP & MILLY: Big Water (Cheetah Press, Spring 2018) is the first book of the trilogy, followed by
ZIP & MILLY: Siberian Adventure (Cheetah Press, forthcoming 2019)
ZIP & MILLY: Amber Rush (forthcoming, 2019).
Dr. Valentine's education includes Master's in Journalism, Ph.D. in literature and humanities, and a law degree. Her experience includes twenty-five years as a journalist, working for newspapers and TV, and seventeen years as a lawyer-litigator. Alex is not one person.
ZIP & MILLY: Big Water (Cheetah Press, Spring 2018) is the first book of the trilogy, followed by
ZIP & MILLY: Siberian Adventure (Cheetah Press, forthcoming 2019)
ZIP & MILLY: Amber Rush (forthcoming, 2019).
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 29, 2018
THE WISHING SHELF BOOK AWARDS
26th August, 2018
TITLE: Zip and Milly
AUTHOR: Alex Valentine
Star Rating: 3
CATCHY QUOTE
‘‘A vividly-written story packed full of fun characters and amusing plot twists.’ The Wishing Shelf
REVIEW
I very much enjoyed this animal story which follows two dogs on a fun adventure. The writing style is wonderful; in fact, I’d go as far as to say, this author has a gold-tipped pen. Although he enjoys the ‘short’ sentence, the rhythm is always there, and the vocabulary is far-ranging. In fact, the vocab is often so complex, I was a little surprised.
The thing is, when I saw the cover, I thought, ‘This is a book for kids.’ Then I had a look at the blurb and I thought, ‘This is a book for kids.’ Then I opened the book, saw the size of the font and the length of the chapters, and I thought, ‘Yes, it’s for kids.’ Then I started reading it and I thought, ‘Hold on! The language is for YA or even adults.’
All very confusing!
For example, ‘In moments like this one, Fox Theo refused to comprehend the motive driving wildlife from his woods to accept Human friendship. How could one give up this excitement, this passion, the urgent imperatives of an empty stomach that knows not exactly how it will next be filled?’
Now, to be honest, this paragraph is a little clumsy, particularly towards the end. But it’s also very complex with a number of words children would find difficult to comprehend. One of them being the word ‘comprehend’; the other being ‘imperative’. So, you see the problem. Everything about the packaging of this book is yelling, ‘I’m for 7 year olds!’ But the writing style is too complex.
So, I decided to experiment a little. I asked three children, aged 8, 11 and 13 to all read it. As I suspected, they all thought from the look of the cover I showed them, and the look of the text, that it was perfect for them. The 8 and 11 year olds had problems following it; basically, the language was too complex for them. Below is an example they picked out of a paragraph they had problems with:
Under the late Uncle’s ownership, the Forest was kept fastidiously clean; aggressive vegetation was held back, the underbrush cleaned out; even dead and sick trees were helped along. The Uncle was a proud, conscientious Forest owner.
As for the 13 year old, although she followed approx. 50% of it, she felt the story was way too ‘young’ for her. Her words, ‘Animal characters are for toddlers.’
I then passed it to two adults. Both of them agreed from the ‘packaging’ – cover image, title, chapter lengths, font size, animal characters, blurb – that it was probably for 7 – 11 year olds, and not for them. But, when they read it, they discovered many aspects of the story would probably fit YA better, and much of the language was adult level. It was for them! They picked out this as an example:
The schadenfreude of the forest dwellers was in no way dampened by Steve’s blatant cutbacks of his ownership duties.
So, there we have it. This is – for the most part – a well-written book packed full of interesting characters. The pacing is even, the settings well-described, and the speech is vivid and helps to keep the story moving. But who is it for? If an adult sees it (cover, blurb, etc.), they will buy it for a 7 year old child, but the child will be totally lost – schadenfreude!!! But a YA or adult who is looking for a book to enjoy, on seeing the book (cover, blurb, animal characters, etc.) would think it is for a child and wouldn’t buy it.
I see from the author bio on Amazon that he has a ‘Master’s in Journalism; a Ph.D. in literature’. I would think that, if he turned his considerable writing talents to writing a book for adults, and packaged it accordingly, he would do an amazing job. But, at present, he is writing books without a home.
I always like to end by telling who I think a book is for. In this case, it’s almost impossible. I guess if you enjoy children’s adventure with animal characters but with a YA plot – of sorts – but written for adults who understand words like ‘schadenfreude’, then this is for you.
All very confusing.
A ‘Wishing Shelf’ Book Review
www.thewsa.co.uk
P.S.
‘Schadenfreude’ - Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.
26th August, 2018
TITLE: Zip and Milly
AUTHOR: Alex Valentine
Star Rating: 3
CATCHY QUOTE
‘‘A vividly-written story packed full of fun characters and amusing plot twists.’ The Wishing Shelf
REVIEW
I very much enjoyed this animal story which follows two dogs on a fun adventure. The writing style is wonderful; in fact, I’d go as far as to say, this author has a gold-tipped pen. Although he enjoys the ‘short’ sentence, the rhythm is always there, and the vocabulary is far-ranging. In fact, the vocab is often so complex, I was a little surprised.
The thing is, when I saw the cover, I thought, ‘This is a book for kids.’ Then I had a look at the blurb and I thought, ‘This is a book for kids.’ Then I opened the book, saw the size of the font and the length of the chapters, and I thought, ‘Yes, it’s for kids.’ Then I started reading it and I thought, ‘Hold on! The language is for YA or even adults.’
All very confusing!
For example, ‘In moments like this one, Fox Theo refused to comprehend the motive driving wildlife from his woods to accept Human friendship. How could one give up this excitement, this passion, the urgent imperatives of an empty stomach that knows not exactly how it will next be filled?’
Now, to be honest, this paragraph is a little clumsy, particularly towards the end. But it’s also very complex with a number of words children would find difficult to comprehend. One of them being the word ‘comprehend’; the other being ‘imperative’. So, you see the problem. Everything about the packaging of this book is yelling, ‘I’m for 7 year olds!’ But the writing style is too complex.
So, I decided to experiment a little. I asked three children, aged 8, 11 and 13 to all read it. As I suspected, they all thought from the look of the cover I showed them, and the look of the text, that it was perfect for them. The 8 and 11 year olds had problems following it; basically, the language was too complex for them. Below is an example they picked out of a paragraph they had problems with:
Under the late Uncle’s ownership, the Forest was kept fastidiously clean; aggressive vegetation was held back, the underbrush cleaned out; even dead and sick trees were helped along. The Uncle was a proud, conscientious Forest owner.
As for the 13 year old, although she followed approx. 50% of it, she felt the story was way too ‘young’ for her. Her words, ‘Animal characters are for toddlers.’
I then passed it to two adults. Both of them agreed from the ‘packaging’ – cover image, title, chapter lengths, font size, animal characters, blurb – that it was probably for 7 – 11 year olds, and not for them. But, when they read it, they discovered many aspects of the story would probably fit YA better, and much of the language was adult level. It was for them! They picked out this as an example:
The schadenfreude of the forest dwellers was in no way dampened by Steve’s blatant cutbacks of his ownership duties.
So, there we have it. This is – for the most part – a well-written book packed full of interesting characters. The pacing is even, the settings well-described, and the speech is vivid and helps to keep the story moving. But who is it for? If an adult sees it (cover, blurb, etc.), they will buy it for a 7 year old child, but the child will be totally lost – schadenfreude!!! But a YA or adult who is looking for a book to enjoy, on seeing the book (cover, blurb, animal characters, etc.) would think it is for a child and wouldn’t buy it.
I see from the author bio on Amazon that he has a ‘Master’s in Journalism; a Ph.D. in literature’. I would think that, if he turned his considerable writing talents to writing a book for adults, and packaged it accordingly, he would do an amazing job. But, at present, he is writing books without a home.
I always like to end by telling who I think a book is for. In this case, it’s almost impossible. I guess if you enjoy children’s adventure with animal characters but with a YA plot – of sorts – but written for adults who understand words like ‘schadenfreude’, then this is for you.
All very confusing.
A ‘Wishing Shelf’ Book Review
www.thewsa.co.uk
P.S.
‘Schadenfreude’ - Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.
July 10, 2018
Great book! My daughter loves it!
September 6, 2018
Starts like a children's book, becomes more like a cozy mystery by page 150, then flirts with being a legal thriller by the last part of the book. Nobody dies, but it does have a good twist. The main attraction, though, is the canine lead.
August 17, 2018
The breathtaking story of an immortal Russian lady professor, unsuccessful smuggler and successful author of genetic experiments, investigated and retold by her spaniel dog. Ian Fleming - Kenneth Grahame style cocktail, shaken not sturred.
June 2, 2018
Children might like it, I didn’t really
August 18, 2018
It's an interesting reading. Especially for the people who keep wishing that dogs could speak their mind.
August 17, 2019
Although the cover of this book was reminiscent of a children’s book, it certainly wasn’t. The main narrator of the story Zip, is a pure-bred spaniel and highly intelligent. I enjoyed reading from his perspective as he moves us through the story. Zip, his sister Milly, Fox Theo, an additional cast of animal friends, along with “Old Lady” and human friends, take us on an adventure that turns into mystery.
As I read, I tried to figure out which age group this story would apply. The cover is a bit misleading. At first, I thought this might be interesting to those in middle school, though as I read, I realized this would most likely appeal to high school, YA as well as adults. The vocabulary was more complicated than I first anticipated, glad I had my Kindle for definitions. Some of the language surprised me as I was still considering this for middle school, which changed my way perspective. Although the story was slow to begin, it quickly came up to speed as we are brought along into some dangerous situations. From that point on I was caught up in the story and really began to enjoy the diversity of the characters and what each brought into the story. The ending leaves you wanting for more as episode one comes to an end. I am looking forward to additional books in this series. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
As I read, I tried to figure out which age group this story would apply. The cover is a bit misleading. At first, I thought this might be interesting to those in middle school, though as I read, I realized this would most likely appeal to high school, YA as well as adults. The vocabulary was more complicated than I first anticipated, glad I had my Kindle for definitions. Some of the language surprised me as I was still considering this for middle school, which changed my way perspective. Although the story was slow to begin, it quickly came up to speed as we are brought along into some dangerous situations. From that point on I was caught up in the story and really began to enjoy the diversity of the characters and what each brought into the story. The ending leaves you wanting for more as episode one comes to an end. I am looking forward to additional books in this series. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
June 13, 2019
Zip and Milly – It takes a while to read, but it’s worth the time. My 8, 9, and 13-year-olds read this story as I did. English Springer Spaniels Zip and Milly are siblings and share the stage with Theo the fox and his daughter Freckle, and Rosie, a cat. The human is an 84-year-old scientist that Zip protects every minute of the day.
I like that the vocabulary was a higher level. My kids read their books with dictionaries nearby, which is mandatory in our family, and did not have a problem with adult words. I was reading the Classics already by age eight, so a larger range in vocabulary is not a problem in my eyes.
While this book is for children, it reads well for all ages. I enjoyed the book just as much as the rugrats did and we give the book 5stars. I found this book on Booksprout. 5*
I like that the vocabulary was a higher level. My kids read their books with dictionaries nearby, which is mandatory in our family, and did not have a problem with adult words. I was reading the Classics already by age eight, so a larger range in vocabulary is not a problem in my eyes.
While this book is for children, it reads well for all ages. I enjoyed the book just as much as the rugrats did and we give the book 5stars. I found this book on Booksprout. 5*
February 20, 2021
Cute!
An enjoyable, humorous tale of two dogs and their scientist owner, it's a cliff hanger in the 'Perils of Pauline' tradition.
An enjoyable, humorous tale of two dogs and their scientist owner, it's a cliff hanger in the 'Perils of Pauline' tradition.
August 7, 2018
1.5 stars. less than an intro into a series, confusing characters, no discernible story line. this might become "cute" in book 2, 3, or 4, too little too late for me.
December 9, 2019
I liked the book a lot! The characters are adorable and the plot is intriguing. I am looking forward to reading the next books!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews