animal ark read-a-thon introduction
Ever since I learned how to read, I have held a special fondness for books about animals. When my second grade class went to our elementary school library, I checked out A Tale of the Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter. Between the littleness of the book itself and the beautiful watercolor illustrations of mice twee Victorian clothing as they inhabit a dollhouse, I was completely smitten. While browsing the stacks at our local public libraries, I pulled out anything that caught my eye: picture books about bunnies on parade, slim Aesop fable adaptations, and, as is the focus of this new series, the Animal Ark books by Lucy Daniels (a pseudonym a team of ghost writers in consultation with Ben M. Baglio.)
Animal Ark (1994-2008) is a children’s chapter book series published by Scholastic about Mandy Hope – the animal-loving daughter of two veterinarian parents (Adam and Emily) who operate a vet clinic in the English countryside that shares its name with the series title. In each book, Mandy stumbles upon an animal in need and, usually with the assistance of her family and best friend James, attempts to provide them with care. Mandy wants to be a vet when she grows up, but also learns lessons throughout the series about the limitations of a small vet clinic as her optimistic and big heart often butt heads with what is really feasible in a small town.
Initially, I was drawn into the series based on the illustrated covers. My family didn’t have any pets when I was growing up and all of the cute animals made me squeal with delight. Scholastic chapter books were also so familiar and cozy with their cheesy captions like so many other series I encountered at the library such as The Bailey School Kids. After she noticed that I was consistently checking these books out, my mom started thrifting copies for my at home library. I remember curling up in my book on New Year’s Eve one year reading a few of the books in a single sitting.
Despite these formative moments, I recalled very little about the content of the books until I started this project rereading them. It’s prompted me to reflect on the structure and goals of middle reader chapter books (aside from selling copies, obviously.) It also makes me want to research the industry of ghost writers in children’s literature…
After I moved back home when the pandemic calmed down a little, I was in a booktube rabbit hole and itching to find my own project to work on. But the reason why you see so few YouTubers reading an entire franchise worth of series like GavinReadsItAll is because it’s time-consuming work! Not just reading, but taking notes, synthesizing that information, and then assembling your thoughts into something coherent to say on camera. As much as I fantasized about dipping my toe into video essays, my brain likes writing paragraphs better. To take my time, nice and slow, and process information at my pace.
Now that I am getting back into blogging, I think I’m ready to pick this project back up. I will be re-reading Animal Ark five books at a time and reporting back on the characters, plot lines, and morals (there’s always one of those.) Along the way, I want to keep in mind a bigger project idea about ghost written chapter books and "pulp" reading for kids. While I can’t promise I will read all of the side books (Holidays, Haunted, Pets, etc.), I’ll continue with them if it strikes my interest.
If you want to read along, you can join this challenge page on StoryGraph. There are 60 books in the main series, but they're short with a large font size.
Thank you for reading! ʕᵔᴥᵔʔ
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