The Imaginary Veterinary 1 – The Sasquatch Escape

Suzanne Selfors's The Sasquatch Escape is the first Imaginary Veterinary book, a funny fantasy for 7 year olds about a boy who finds a baby dragon on his bed.

What happens

Ben Silverstein is ten and has been packed off to his grandpa's town for the summer. Buttonville has been very quiet since the button factory shut. Ben is pretty sure it's going to be the worst summer ever.

Then Grandpa Abe's cat strolls in with something dangling from his mouth. It squeaks. Then it shoots a jet of fire straight at Ben's face!

The nearest vet is a four-hour drive away. So Ben teams up with Pearl Petal, who talks nonstop and saw something enormous flying over the town too. They carry the hurt creature in a biscuit tin to the old button factory, where a worm doctor has just moved in (and they don't have a worm between them).

It isn't really a worm hospital, of course. The patients come from somewhere called the Imaginary World. And when a big, smelly and very hairy patient gets loose in Buttonville, it's down to Ben and Pearl to get it back.

Ben is a boy who makes up stories. He once blamed a pelican for his missing maths homework (and got an extra week). It's very funny being in his head as he dreams up excuses, and then finds something too strange to invent.

Grandpa Abe is a treat too. Doughnuts for breakfast, no napkins and pudding day every Saturday at the senior centre. Who wouldn't want a summer with him?

Then there's Mr Tabby, the doctor's very polite assistant, who has whiskers, sharp nails and a worrying interest in Ben's hamster. Even his safety form is a joke. It mentions being vaporised or shredded, but his creature calculator puts the odds of vaporising today at zero.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Ben's been sent away because his parents are having troubles and arguing a lot, and he wonders whether they'll stay together. It sits quietly in the background, but if things are wobbly at home for your reader it may feel close.

If you've got a reader who secretly hopes dragons are real, this is a cosy, giggly place to start.

What to read next

If they'd like another child nursing a baby dragon in secret, try Dragons and Marshmallows. Zoey's mum has been quietly helping magical animals in their barn for years, and when a poorly little dragon turns up it's Zoey's turn (with LOTS of science).