Ava Loves Rescuing Animals - Jess French - ★★★★★

AUTHOR: Jess French

ILLUSTRATOR: Duncan Beedie

GENRE: Children's Picture Book, Animals.

RATING: 5 Stars!

In a Nutshell: The title doesn’t do this book justice! A great story and plenty of fun animal facts. A must for every little animal lover.

Ava is a little girl who, as the title clearly indicates, loves animals. She lives with her grandparents who run an animal rescue centre, and through their work, Ava meets and helps plenty of animals. Today, they are expecting an animal arrival, and Ava needs to buy some things to make this new visitor comfortable. On the way to the store, Ava spots several animals and several friends and has nice interactions with them all.

Through this simple story structure, you might have pictured the beauty of the story and its focus on keeping animals safe. But you can’t even begin to imagine how much the author has managed to fit into this little picture book! And without any of it feeling overwhelming or cluttered!

Through Ava’s narration, we get to see plenty of animal-related information in the book:

🐼 How rescue centres operate.

🐼 Animal types: mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish…

🐼 Animal groups: Herbivores, carnivores, omnivores.

🐼 Difference between pets, farm animals, and wild animals, and how we (ought to) approach each of these.

🐼 Things to carry with you on a nature walk.

🐼 Fun animal facts.

🐼 Food chains and ecosystems.

🐼 Habitats & homes.

🐼 Plastic pollution & recycling.

Just see the astounding range of topics covered! There’s also a final section that speaks about how we can be a ‘real-life animal hero’, with many pragmatic tips that children (and adults) can implement.

I cannot forget to mention Mini, Ava’s little pet mouse, who adds humour to the book with her witty remarks.

The one thing that might have worried me about this story was if it advocated rescue attempts without speaking of being careful. But the author has that covered aspect wonderfully. Wherever an animal in distress is mentioned, the content has a note about whether and how the animal should be approached. In fact, right at the start of the book, before the story even begins, there’s a bulleted list of guidelines to follow while meeting animals. The information is so practical that I found no point to complain about!

The vocabulary is mostly easy, with the tougher words being only the biological or zoological terms. But these are well-explained, so children should not have that much of an issue with comprehension.

The illustrations are a bit on the dull side, with earth tones dominating the colour palette. But I guess this suits a book that delves right into the heart of nature. The sketches are really sweet though, with both children and animals drawn cutely.

This book is a part of the Nature Heroes series that focuses on a group of friends who are passionate about nature. Each book features a different child who has a favourite topic that they are fascinated by: ‘Billy Loves Birds’, ‘Bella Loves Bugs’, ‘Ava Loves Rescuing Animals’ and ‘Pedro Loves the Planet’! In Ava’s book, Billy, Bella and Pedro make special guest appearances. I’d love to get my hands on the remaining three titles of the series!

The book is officially aimed at readers aged 4-7 years. I think the younger ones in that range will enjoy the story and some tips. But the older kids (which could also include tweens) will find the entire book entertaining and enlightening.

In short… Schools, homes, libraries - buy this book! It will be helpful and beloved to young and not-so-young animal lovers.

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “Ava Loves Rescuing Animals”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.