Wendy Orr – författare

From the moment she''s born, the adorable beagle puppy named Bella has a lot of energy. She runs, she chases, she somersaults, she chews, and she sniffs . . . and sniffs and sniffs and sniffs. Her new owners love her, but they soon realize that Bella is bored while they''re out of the house all day, and that their small apartment might not be the best home for an energetic puppy. Luckily, Mona at the Rainbow Street Shelter can help! She keeps an eye out for the perfect place for Bella, and soon she finds her not just a home but a job—the best job in the world for a dog who loves to sniff.

Sam wants a pet for her birthday, but her mom and dad have already said that their apartment is too small for a cat or a dog. A trip to Rainbow Street Shelter to look at the smaller animals can''t hurt, though!At the shelter, Sam finds the perfect pet for her, a fluffy black guinea pig named Henry. But she can''t help noticing how happy her little brother is when he''s reading to Nelly, the Rainbow Street dog. Why can''t he read like that when he''s in school? Nelly looks happy, too. Sam starts to wonder . . . can a dog go to kindergarten?

Mona''s uncle Matthew works in a circus, and he always gives pretty great birthday presents. But when Mona turns eight, he gives her something better than juggling balls or stilts—a baby lion cub! His note says that the cub''s mother couldn''t care for it properly, and he knows Mona and her grandparents can help. Mona names the lion Kiki, and at first Kiki is like any other kitten. As she grows bigger and bigger, though, Mona realizes that Kiki needs a home which will allow her to be the wild animal she was born to be. Fans of the Rainbow Street Shelter books will love reading about how the shelter started and how its owner, Mona, has always loved animals—starting with an adorable baby lion.

Amy lives and breathes horses, but all her horses are in books or in her head. So when she goes on a picnic with her friend Hannah''s family, Hannah thinks Amy is imagining things when she says she heard a horse neigh nearby. But then Hannah hears a neigh, too! What''s a horse doing in the park?With a little help from Mona at the Rainbow Street Shelter, Amy makes sure the horse is safe and sound. She almost hopes the owner never turns up, so that she could keep visiting the pony. . . .

From Mokie and Bik:Mokie and Bik lived on a boat called Bullfrog. They lived in it, on it, all around it—monkeying up ladders and down ropes, over the wheelhouse and across the cabin floor. "Twins!" their mother shouted, because the lines of her Art jiggled and jarred when Mokie and Bik played bumpboats. "Get out from underfoot!"So Bik bumped Mokie out the door—splat!—into nanny Ruby''s bucket as she was sploshing the deck."Twins!" shouted Ruby. "Get out from underfoot!" So they sunned like seals on the wheelhouse roof for about twenty hours till Ruby finished sploshing.Meet a pair of twins that will monkey their way into your heart!Mokie is bigger but Bik is faster. They are twins, and they have a nanny Ruby that looks after them while their mom is Arting and their dad is on his ship at sea. Whether they''re helping Erik the Viking splosh his decks or learning to swim fast as fisk, these two are always overboard or underfoot! Rambunctious and charming, Mokie and Bik are a pair you won''t soon forget. Wendy Orr''s buoyant language and Jonathan Bean''s gorgeous, detailed pen-and-ink illustrations blend together in a book that is destined to become a classic. Mokie and Bik is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children''s Book of the Year.