Middle Grade Review: Lily to the Rescue: Foxes in a Fix (W. Bruce Cameron)

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About This Book:

Lily lives with her girl, Maggie Rose. Once a stray, Lily was rescued by the kind people at the animal shelter run by Maggie Rose’s mom. Now she has a very important purpose: to rescue other animals in trouble.

When a litter of arctic foxes escape from the zoo and must be found before they get into a fix, it’s Lily to the rescue!

 

*Review Contributed by Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer*

 

Adventure in Alaska
 
Lily lives with her girl, Maggie Rose, whose mother runs an animal shelter. Maggie Rose is constantly trying to get people she knows to adopt rescue dogs. When her father asks Mr. Martin, who has a plane, to fly to Alaska with some young snow fox pups that have been bred in Coloradoe, Maggie is sure that Mr. Martin needs a dog as well. She brings Lily along on the visit. Mr. Martin’s own dog has just passed away, and he says that he is not ready for another one, but Maggie Rose hopes she can change his mind. Unfortunately, Lily causes all manner of trouble, ruining a model airplane, barking at squirrels, and even rolling in something dead and requiring a bath. When the zoo where the fox pups are being kept reports them missing, Maggie Rose hopes that Lily can be instrumental in finding them. When the group finally locates the pups and takes them to Alaska, they connect with breeders who have huskies. A pup there is missing a paw, so likely will have a hard life. Will Maggie Rose be able to convince Mr. Martin that this puppy is meant for him?
 
Good Points
Told from Lily’s point of view, this is an early chapter book has adorable pencil illustrations of a variety of dogs, including the effervescent but somewhat misguided Lily. Maggie does her best to control her, and has the best interest of animals in mind. Like Miles’ The Puppy Place books, Cameron’s books offer a lot of good information to potential dog owners.

In addition to the excitement of the fox pups escaping, there is the adventure of going to Alaska and working with the sled dogs. Mr. Martin’s back story, with information about the three legged dog he had as a child, added another level to the story, and his sadness over losing his pet may help young readers process a similar experience.

Readers who aren’t quite ready for Johnson’s Dog Driven or Gary Paulsen’s adventure books will find a lot to like in this series for younger readers. Even though I haven’t read the first six books in the series, it was easy to pick up the storyline. I’m curious to investigate the other adventures that Maggie Rose has.

 

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