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FRIENDS FUR-EVER! by Jana Tropper

FRIENDS FUR-EVER!

From the Animal Rescue Friends series, volume 2

by Jana Tropper ; illustrated by Genevieve Kote & Axelle Lenoir

Pub Date: Nov. 8th, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5248-7584-8
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

The second volume of a planned Animal Rescue Friends trilogy.

The four kids who work at an animal shelter (brown-skinned Maddie; White-presenting, bespectacled Bell; Latine Mikey; and brown-skinned Noah) decide to form an animal lovers’ club at their school with the aid of their initially reluctant Chinese American teacher sponsor, Mrs. Wen. To bring the number of members up to the minimum of five, Mrs. Wen invites Jimmy, the White-presenting former bully from the first book in the series. When the kids take Noah’s rabbit to visit Mrs. Wen’s grandmother in her nursing home, interacting with the cuddly bunny helps her remember her past. The children also use teamwork and detective skills to help find the school’s missing hamster. The illustrations strike a cheerful tone, and the characters show sensitivity and compassion to one another as well as to the animals. However, situations in other chapters veer into improbable or even dangerous territory—a horse signifies her unwillingness to pull a wagon by sitting down like a dog, and Jimmy and Bell capture an injured wild porcupine instead of waiting for animal control. The final chapter, in which Maddie attempts to train a cat to become a service animal in a single day, strikes a somewhat sour tone, with sighted Maddie deciding the sort of help a blind person might need.

The far-fetched episodes and false steps make this volume less successful than its predecessor.

(Graphic fiction. 8-12)