Read Must Love Pets 03 – Bunny Bonanza free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Saadia Faruqi's Bunny Bonanza is a warm, giggly pet-sitting story for 8 year olds about three best friends and a rabbit who turns out to be a bit of an athlete.
Imaan, London and Olivia run a pet-sitting business called Must Love Pets. They've already survived some very naughty kittens. Now the phone rings with a new client.
Sonya is an animal trainer whose office has had a small fire. She needs somewhere safe for Doc, a floppy-eared black-and-white Holland Lop, for a whole week. He needs a home with kids.
Imaan has always dreamed of cuddling a rabbit (she admits that sounds a bit creepy). There's just one catch. Doc is halfway through learning an obstacle course, with hoops and a slide and a tunnel. If he stops practising, he'll forget it all. So the girls have to keep training him!
Meanwhile London has promised the owner of their favourite café some "talent" for a street party on Saturday. She's got a clipboard. She's watched a LOT of Shark Tank. She even asks for free smoothies for life in return.
Imaan tells the story, and she's great fun to be around. She's never heard of Bugs Bunny, so the whole "What's up, Doc?" joke sails straight over her head. Her little brother Amir is six and very loud, and he absolutely wants to hold the rabbit. Guess who ends up falling into the playpen trying to catch Doc for him?
Her grumpy grandfather Dada Jee is a highlight too. He grows lemons, talks to his trees and wants to know why Americans hold parties in the street.
There's a gentle sad thread running underneath. Imaan's dad has died, and she keeps the Happy Meal toys from their old McDonald's treats lined up on her dresser. She's glad when her friends talk about him. It's handled so kindly and it never takes over, but it's worth a mention if your family has lost someone.
If you've got a reader who loves animals, bickering best friends and the odd disaster, this is a lovely one. It's full of the small stuff of friendship, like which smoothie is best (strawberry kiwi, obviously).
If they'd like to see how the girls first got going, Furry Friends Forever is the first Must Love Pets story, and it starts on the very first morning of the summer holidays.
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