Thanks for Telling Me, Emily

Deirdre Madden (author)

Orchard Books, UK: 2007; 239pp

ISBN: 9781846163326

Genres: adventure, animal stories, fantasy

Issues: communication, family, friendship

The story of some unique animals, a great deal of love and a little bit of magic.

Keira's Aunty Emily owns a pet shop in a small English village. It is the most wonderful pet shop in the world, according to the villagers. Keira, who is visiting during her holidays, agrees - although it takes her a while to get used to the snake.

Unlike most pet shops, Aunty Emily's doesn't sell many animals - one doesn't sell friends, after all. The arrival of the eccentric and domineering Mrs Henrietta Fysshe-Pye changes all that. Determined to have animals to match her pretensions to grandeur, Emily's animals soon find that drastic and magical measures are called for if they are to stay with their pet shop friends.

Hilarious and chaotic adventures ensue as Mulvey (the cat with a sense of humour), Captain Cockle (the Amazonian Rainforest Parrot) and Bubbles (a small dog) join forces with Presto (magician's rabbit), Noreen (a friendly snake), a sheep, a goat and several highly intelligent mice to prove to Mrs Fysshe-Pye that nobody owns animals - unless the animal adopts the human first!

Packed with adventures and crowded with quirky characters, this is a very readable narrative that will appeal to all animal lovers. You'll never look at your pets quite the same way again! Great fun.