I was having a look through the children's section of a book shop today, and a series of animal stories caught my eye. I didn't really expect there to be one on ferrets, but to my surprise there was! So I bought it :) The details: Ferret Fun by Lucy Daniels Series: Animal Ark Pets #17 119 pages Published 1999 Hodder Children's Books ISBN 0 340 73589 9 It has an absolutely gorgeous drawing of a yellow DEW jill on the cover. Plot Summary: Mandy is a girl (probably aged about 10) who loves animals and she gets plenty of opportunity to learn about them as her parents are both vets, and run the Animal Ark Verterinary Surgery in the village where they live. Mandy finds a stray ferret under her grandparents' shed, and helps Danny, her friend who used to keep ferrets in America, to look after the ferret while the try and find the owner. Together Mandy and Danny come up with a great idea on how to use Freddy the ferret to help raise money to buy library books at the school Fun Day. _Ferret Fun_ is an enjoyable little children's story and has great illustrations of the ferret. It also provides useful information about keeping ferrets, like the need for distemper shots, the fact that ferrets can catch cold, and what ferrets eat. The author has certainly done her homework, but she did make a few slip ups - Danny supposedly kept ferrets in California, and a baby ferret is refered to as a kitten. Is this actually how baby ferrets are sometimes refered to in the UK, or is it a mistake? The illustrations are great and show typical ferret poses, but the ferret's tail is shown to be about twice as long as any that I have ever seen! On the whole this is a good little book, and it's great to see some literature about ferrets that calmly and sensibly presents them as pets without making a big deal of it. Kylie Preisig Ferret fan. Children's book fan. Ferretless in Queensland. [Posted in FML issue 2737]