Customer Reviews

The Wit and Wisdom of the Modern Ferrets : A Ferret's Perspective On Ferret Care

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this as an afterthought after getting "Ferrets For Dummies" at a local petstore, without knowing what to expect, and after reading it, I still don't know what I expected. The information wasn't as in depth or exstensive (or organized, you really do need that index sometimes) as I'd hoped, and I found the 'ferrets' point of view not to be as entertaining as I'd hoped. As another reviewer had pointed out, there didn't seem to be a lot of personality and character to many of the articles. The photos were a surprising mix of quality, and some were really poor.
I can't really tell if it's ment to be for the new ferret owner, which the info seems to suggest, or someone who already has them, which the stories and format point to.
The attempt to mix silly stories with ferret info could work, but I didn't find it to work very well here, and I think the book would have been best focusing on either being a cute ferret tale, or an informative book. If this were two books by the same author, I'd consider purchasing it again.

This book explains so much and gives many wonderful ideas! It is a wonderful compilation of columns from Modern Ferret Magazine. "The ferrets" explain mysteries of ferret behavior, give important safety-tips, and give great ideas to make life more fun for your ferret! The characters are funny and have developed personalities so real that I can picture them even without the pictures. If you like ferrets, I strongly recommend you get this book.

I loved The Wit and Wisdom of the Modern Ferrets! Mary's literary formula of writing each chapter from the perspective of one of her own ferret's is not only informative but also a funny and enjoyable experience. The book offers the same 'wit and wisdom' as the Modern Ferret magazine and will delight real ferret lovers. This is not a 'how to raise a ferret manual for dummies" --but rather a users guide for people who know and love ferrets. I hope that Mary writes a novel from the perspective of her ferrets one of these days!

This is a wonderful book for new ferrets owners and long time ferret enthusiasts as well! It's fun to read and VERY informative. Each chapter covers a separate topic so you can either skip around or read the book in order. Everything is written from the point of view of Mary and Eric Shefferman's ferrets, taken from columns that originally appeared in "Modern Ferret" magazine.

Mary is a very well-respected ferret expert who has been writing about ferrets for a number of years. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves ferrets--even if you've had ferrets for a long time, you'll pick up some solid information here. And the price is right too!

This is a wonderful book for new ferrets owners and long time ferret enthusiasts as well! It's fun to read and VERY informative. Each chapter covers a separate topic so you can either skip around or read the book in order. Everything is written from the point of view of Mary and Eric Shefferman's ferrets, taken from columns that originally appeared in "Modern Ferret" magazine.

Mary is a very well-respected ferret expert who has been writing about ferrets for a number of years. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves ferrets--even if you've had ferrets for a long time, you'll pick up some solid information here. And the price is right too!

This is book contains innovative ways of explaining the basics of ferret care, with helpful internet resources in the back, but it needs to be better organized, and it could be much funnier through further character development.

DISORGANIZATION: For instance, the first few articles are entitled (in order) "Sleeping Like a Log," "Safe Outlets," "Check for Lumps and Bumps," "'Nipper' in Napersville," "Secrets of the Litter Box," "Toys!," "Keep It Clean," "Cheap Plastic Egg Toys," and "Hold the Veggies, Please." This organization goes from ferret habits, to safety, back to ferret habits, to helpful hints, to play things, to ferret care, back to play things, back to ferret care. It seems to me that all ferret habits should be organized together, all ferret safety issues should be together, all helpful hints should be listed together, and all play things should be placed together. This would it much easier to find what you need to know within the book.

...: Also, the book has "Trixie's Tips," "Sabrina Says," "Dear Gabby: Your Advice Ferret," "Knuks Makes Mischief," and "Marshmellow Explains It All," for the different writing styles of different ferrets. The first two do not consistently tell the lesson from a ferret's perspective, and hence, the book is ... advertising that the book is written from a ferret's perpective. In addition, these ferret storytellers seem to be randomly placed throughout the book, again leading to disorganization.

POORLY DEVELOPED CHARACTERIZATION: It could be made funnier by developing the individual ferret characters, making Knuks into a determined commando feret, Trixie into a know-it-all teenage ferret, and Sabrina into a scientist ferret. The only ferret characters that are truly developed are Marshmellow, the mothering ferret of superior intelligence, and Gabby, the consoling psychologist.

EXPECTATIONS: I was expecting a lot more from this book than I received. It's a great introduction to ferrets, which is extremely informative for first time ferret owners, but most of the information contained within the pages doesn't offer much insight to people who have been owned by ferrets for much of anything over a few months. Unless you're just bored with your ferret, which I cannot imagine, or frustrated in feeling like you're alone in your problems with ferrets, I don't particularly think that this book really offers much for veterans owned by ferrets.

BOTTOM LINE? Although this book is insightful, seems to be a concept that is not fully developed either in characterization of the ferret storytellers or overall organization. Think twice before buying the book.

I found this book to be trivial and ridiculous. I just did not find it as useful as other ferret books such as Ferrets for Dummies. It is far to cutesy to be taken seriously and is not very well-written. Isn't this the same author that writes for Modern Ferret? Even so, I was disappointed.