Fight for Life #1 (Vet Volunteers) [Paperback]

Laurie Halse Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2007 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Vet Volunteers (Book 1)

Maggie’s grandmother runs an animal clinic, Dr. Mac’s place, so Maggie knows her way around animals who are in danger. when she learns that the abused and sick puppies flooding the clinic are from an illegal puppy mill, she knows that she has to find out who’s running it, where it is—and save the rest of the dogs.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 4^-6, younger for reading aloud. This first volume of the Wild at Heart series, a spin-off of the popular American Girl stories, features 11-year-old Maggie, who has been raised by her grandmother since her parents were killed in a car accident. Gran is a veterinarian who owns the Wild at Heart Animal Clinic, where Maggie is a volunteer. The plot centers on a crisis involving 10 sick puppies brought to Gran's clinic. Maggie suspects that they all came from the same place--a puppy mill. With the help of other teen volunteers at the clinic, she sets out to find the person who's behind the mill and shut it down. Maggie's first-person narrative describes the veterinary procedures in simple language and builds suspense in the key adventure scenes. But it is Maggie's portrayal of her grandmother as a feisty, capable vet that will stick in readers' minds. The other teen volunteers introduced in this story each get a turn to shine in upcoming books in the series. Lauren Peterson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A fast-paced story that kids will like. (Children’s Literature)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (May 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014240862X
• ISBN-13: 978-0142408629
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Careers
  • #78 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Family Life > Multigenerational
  • #96 in Books > Children's Books > Education & Reference > Careers

More About the Author

Laurie Halse (rhymes with "waltz") Anderson pretended she was a polar bear when she walked to school through the snow of Syracuse, New York. As a little girl, she would pound away at her father's old typewriter for hours, writing newspaper columns, stories, and letters. She loved watching her father write poetry and reading the funnies on the floor of his office. Laurie fell in love with words when her second-grade teacher taught her how to write haiku. Her favorite book is the dictionary, which is a good thing because she is a terrible speller. She tried to read every book in her school library, a heavenly place. She loves librarians! One of her favorite books was Heidi. This led to curiosity about foreign cultures. As a senior in high school, she was an American Field Service exchange student to Denmark, where she lived on a pig farm. She skipped both her prom and graduation ceremonies and had a great time there. She can still speak Danish.

Laurie Halse Anderson never intended to be an author. At Georgetown University, she majored in foreign languages and linguistics. She hit the real world with no idea of what kind of work she wanted to do. She tried everything, including cleaning banks, milking cows and working as a stockbroker. She hated all of it. Working as a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer was a slight improvement, but she eventually quit to write books. After eight long, rejection-filled years, she has finally qualified as an overnight success.

Laurie's books for children and teenagers have attracted a lot of attention. Her first novel, Speak, was a National Book Award Finalist, a Michael L. Printz Honor book, a New York Times bestseller, and an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. Publisher's Weekly, called Speak "a stunning first novel," in which Ms. Anderson "uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager." Speak has been translated into sixteen foreign languages, including Chinese and Catalan. In 2005, the movie version was released. In addition to novels, Laurie writes chapter books for elementary age children and picture books for the pre-school set. She received the Margaret A. Edwards Award, given by the American Library Association for significant and lasting achievement in young adult literature, in 2009.

Laurie lives in Northern New York with her husband, Scot, and their dog, Kezzie. Scot designed and built a writing cottage for Laurie, where she writes daily. Along with writing, she enjoys gardening, running and hanging with her family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This Book!, December 5, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Fight for Life: Maggie Vet Volunteer (Wild at Heart) (Paperback)

I highly recommend that you read this book everyone because it is funny, realistic, and sad. Laurie Halse Anderson makes this book very realistic. She doesn't make all the puppies live, healthy, and cared for like in a fairy tale, she makes them sick, small, weak, and neglected. Also she doesn't make Maggie smart and perfect, she makes Maggie a person who hates school and who can't do well in school. Fight for Life is also very funny because one time Maggie's Grandma calls her teacher while grooming a dog. When Maggie's grandma tells the dog to sit down and not to get so worked up, the teacher thinks that she is talking to her! Fight for Life is sad because someone is abusing the dogs and not caring for them that well, which results in the puppies getting very sick and some puppies dying. This book was great and I recommend that you get it and read it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Puppy Love for Summer, August 25, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Fight for Life: Maggie Vet Volunteer (Wild at Heart) (Paperback)

This story, of a 13-year-old girl and her grandmother, who is a veterinarian, focuses mainly on puppies. It starts out with puppies being brought into the "Wild at Heart" veterinary clinic. The puppies had been purchased at the farmer's market. Maggie, the girl, is taken by surprise when her grandmother gives away her jobs helping out to other kids around the neighborhood, to give Maggie more time to study. When the kids find out that there's a law against treating dogs badly, the kids try to save the underfed and dehydrated puppies that were brought into the clinic.

I think the book was a very good book because it was very hard to stop reading it! You just want to find out what happens next.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fight for Life, March 27, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Fight for Life: Maggie Vet Volunteer (Wild at Heart) (Paperback)

This is a very exciting and interesting book. It's about an 11 year old girl that lives with her grandmother, Dr. MacKenzie or Dr. Mac, because her parents died in a car crash when she was 7. The book is about Maggie who is having trouble with her grades in school, and she is banned from the clinic until her grades go up. On top of that, since she can't do the work if she's banned, some kids from school help out at the clinic. She feels like she doesn't belong there anymore. Plus it's worse when her cousin, Zoe, who's mother is an actress comes to stay. The story is about a man who is running a puppy mill which is illegal. He sells sick, dirty puppies at the farmer's market. Maggie, her cousin, and "friends" try to stop the man from selling the pups. It's full of sad times, and good times. This is a good book if you love puppies.