Badgers by the Bridge

Animal Ark [GB Order] #48

by Lucy Daniels

Genres: Animals, Childrens

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Lucy Daniels is the collective name for the writing team that created the bestselling children's book series Animal Ark, many of the books are also published under the name of the series creator, Ben M. Baglio.

Reviews

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the only Animal Ark book I've given five stars to so far (I'm still debating about Dog At the Door). This was a difficult book to read in that it was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, which is not what Animal Ark books are known for. This book brought to light a very real problem in the UK -- badger baiting -- and the efforts to fight it.

When the series was at it's best was showing real problems that animals go through, and ways to help those animals. Badger baiting (which still goes on today) is absolutely horrendous to both badgers and dogs. The book did pull some punches, but made it clear how grim and cruel this "sport" is. That a kids' book -- and one from a very profitable series, no less -- would tackle this issue is incredibly laudible.

And probably why it was not published in America. All of the books in the Wildlife Ways trilogy pointed out problems Yorkshire wildlife faced, which was apparently just too much for Scholastic to handle. (Scholastic was the American publisher of Animal Ark.) This book was the second in the Wildlife Ways trilogy.

Now, I'm an unabashed Blackie fan. I love James's goofy dog as if he were my own. I actually screamed when he was forced in a ring with a badger. I couldn't believe James wasn't trying to save Blackie.

It was later on, through some research, that I found out that James actually did the right thing. According to the law, there had to be unquestionable video proof of the badger baiting in order to successfully prosecute the organizers and dog theives.

This is the second time badger baiting is featured in the series. Badger in the Basement, just the sixth book in the series, also shone a light on this problem, but in a less dramatic way. So, Badgers By the Bridge is sort of a sequel. Both books were written by Bette Paul. In this book, the illustrations are done by Anne Baum, who I thought was the better illustrator. Her subtle drawing of James looking for his stolen dog is heartbreaking, even though part of his face is covered by his hand.

[Lily Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the plight of badgers due to Badger baiting

[Hermione pearson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought this because i thought it was about badgers
Bollocks all very disappointed
I learnt nothing new

[Sammy]

I was completely obsessed with this series of books when I was a child and my aim was to read every single book. They are a really good children's series.

[Taylor Troncin]

Loved this series when I was younger. Still a huge animal lover and would like to read the rest of this series!

[Emma]

This was another book that i had read when i was younger this was probably the first i read of this genre.