A guide to pet health from a caretaker and a veterinarian.
In this valuable and accessible reference guide, Ellsworth (The Psychoanalysis of Everyday Life, 2012), with her veterinarian co-writer, Wafer, details a number of ailments dogs and cats can face, from the common to the rare, via stories of the pets she cares for. “Technically, I’m a pet sitter,” Ellsworth says. “But since some of these pets spend more time with me than their owners, I prefer to think of myself as a pet au pair.” The stories illustrate illnesses like thyroid problems and heartworms as well as conditions like obesity and behavioral problems. Some end sadly—Fowler, the best bird dog in Solano County, California, had aged well past his prime before being euthanized—while other issues were little more than brief disturbances in a dog’s or cat’s routine. Ellsworth tackled all problems with a level head, even though they included things like anal gland expression and tumors. The book’s lighthearted tone is clearly full of love for all creatures, yet it’s also elevated enough to include medical terminology: “Dandelion root (Taraxacum officinale) alone contains copper, iron, selenium, magnesium and zinc,” readers are told, “as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, B5, B6, B12, C, D and E.” The work would make an ideal reference for pet owners who need basic information about pet health problems as well as advice on when it’s time to take a cat or dog to the vet. Offering readers numerous avenues to attack a particular health problem, the authors provide information on homeopathic treatments as well as modern veterinary medicine along with the necessary cautions that come with taking such an approach. Through dialogues with Ellsworth’s own veterinarian, Dr. McKenna, and his assistant, the authors make complex terminology and difficult decisions seem simpler and easier to manage. Also included is a comprehensive list of the subtypes of many conditions—such as possible dermatological issues and mental problems—as well as other useful sections covering common substances poisonous to pets and a discussion of vaccines.
A handy, approachable reference for cat and dog health.
Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1596300903
Page Count: 252
Publisher: BeachHouse Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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This early reader is an excellent introduction to the March on Washington in 1963 and the important role in the march played by Martin Luther King Jr. Ruffin gives the book a good, dramatic start: “August 28, 1963. It is a hot summer day in Washington, D.C. More than 250,00 people are pouring into the city.” They have come to protest the treatment of African-Americans here in the US. With stirring original artwork mixed with photographs of the events (and the segregationist policies in the South, such as separate drinking fountains and entrances to public buildings), Ruffin writes of how an end to slavery didn’t mark true equality and that these rights had to be fought for—through marches and sit-ins and words, particularly those of Dr. King, and particularly on that fateful day in Washington. Within a year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed: “It does not change everything. But it is a beginning.” Lots of visual cues will help new readers through the fairly simple text, but it is the power of the story that will keep them turning the pages. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-448-42421-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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Noted jazz and pop record producer Thiele offers a chatty autobiography. Aided by record-business colleague Golden, Thiele traces his career from his start as a ``pubescent, novice jazz record producer'' in the 1940s through the '50s, when he headed Coral, Dot, and Roulette Records, and the '60s, when he worked for ABC and ran the famous Impulse! jazz label. At Coral, Thiele championed the work of ``hillbilly'' singer Buddy Holly, although the only sessions he produced with Holly were marred by saccharine strings. The producer specialized in more mainstream popsters like the irrepressibly perky Teresa Brewer (who later became his fourth wife) and the bubble-machine muzak-meister Lawrence Welk. At Dot, Thiele was instrumental in recording Jack Kerouac's famous beat- generation ramblings to jazz accompaniment (recordings that Dot's president found ``pornographic''), while also overseeing a steady stream of pop hits. He then moved to the Mafia-controlled Roulette label, where he observed the ``silk-suited, pinky-ringed'' entourage who frequented the label's offices. Incredibly, however, Thiele remembers the famously hard-nosed Morris Levy, who ran the label and was eventually convicted of extortion, as ``one of the kindest, most warm-hearted, and classiest music men I have ever known.'' At ABC/Impulse!, Thiele oversaw the classic recordings of John Coltrane, although he is the first to admit that Coltrane essentially produced his own sessions. Like many producers of the day, Thiele participated in the ownership of publishing rights to some of the songs he recorded; he makes no apology for this practice, which he calls ``entirely appropriate and without any ethical conflicts.'' A pleasant, if not exactly riveting, memoir that will be of most interest to those with a thirst for cocktail-hour stories of the record biz. (25 halftones, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-508629-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
Categories: GENERAL NONFICTION
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