It takes an especially talented author to produce work that captures the interest and the imagination of both adults and children. Books by James Heriott and Roald Dahl usually fall into the "young adult" category but, despite pushing 30, I immensely enjoyed my two latest reads: "Dog Stories" and "The Wonderful Tale of Henry Sugar and Six More."
I loved Roald Dahl books as a child but I recently realized that I still haven't read a lot of his work. This book contains a wonderful collection of stories, offering a clever mix of fantasy and reality. There's the young boy who rescues and talks to a giant sea turtle, the plowman who discovers an incredible buried treasure, the cunning
hitchhiker who pick-pockets faster than the eye can see, and the wealthy man who learns how to read playing cards face-down. In addition to memorable characters and fantastic plots, this book also contains the story of how Roald Dahl became a writer, as well as a copy of the very first nonfiction story he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post.
Herriot's collection of fifty short stories perfectly captures the unique personality of every dog and highlights the quirkiness of many pet owners. Herriot begins with a fairly long and amusing introduction about how he became a vet before going on to share the most memorable anecdotes from his Yorkshire practice in the 1930s. He tells of "Judy the nurse dog," who cares for all the barnyard animals; of abused or abandoned dogs who find new and loving homes; and of dogs who contract distemper or leptospirosis, fatal diseases against which vets now routinely inoculate. It's a volume containing humour, heartbreak and fascinating veterinary history.
our (well, mostly Holly's!) couch 
