SECOND CHANCES

Animal rescuers save horses, pigs, and other critters in Sobolewski’s heartfelt middle-grade novel.

Animal rescuer Mel, her daughter, Lennon, her live-in handyman, Slick, and his daughter, June, collect abused and abandoned animals and bring them back to Mel’s California ranch, adopting some and placing the rest in other permanent homes. The beasts-in-distress include Slick’s horse, Hickory, who’s extracted from a forest fire; a pig named Love, who’s dredged out of the muck of a Nebraska hog farm after he’s injured in a flood (the farmer complains that the rescuers are actually stealing him); a pair of fly-infested alpacas with an ornery habit of spitting at anyone who approaches (Lennon poetically christens them Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski); a husky dog found hungry and panic-stricken beside his owner’s corpse; and a calf named Norman, whom Mel whisks off to a team of veterinarians when he comes down with diarrhea. This first installment of the author’s Moonlight Mile Ranch series fictionalizes her real-life family’s zoological exploits and paints a vivid portrait of the animal-rescue scene, with its gung-ho network of scouts, rescue teams, foster farms, and adopters, all passionately committed to animals’ well-being in quirkily inspired ways (“Dr. Easton made a ramp out of two large animal stretchers and lined it with strawberries and Cheerios. About 15 minutes later, they all saw the pig limp down the ramp, eating treats along the way”). Throughout the narrative, Sobolewski gently soapboxes for animal rights and autonomy: “Morally, I don’t understand your business at all,” Mel tells a dairy worker. “I believe in allowing all animals to live with dignity and security, without having to produce anything in return.” Pitched at a middle-grade readership, Sobolewski’s prose is limpid and matter-of-fact, with wonderfully evocative renderings of animals’ lives and struggles. Young animal-lovers will be captivated.

A touching chronicle of people and animals bonding with and helping each other.