ONE DAY AT WOOD GREEN ANIMAL SHELTER

The events of a day at a combination animal shelter and veterinary office are detailed in this oversized and overly busy picture book from Casey (Beep! Beep! Oink! Oink! Animals in the City, 1997, etc.). Her bold collage illustrations are done in an interesting though hectic style with a combination of photographs, patterned papers, and watercolor shapes, augmented with hand-lettered speech balloons and animal sounds. Additional small pencil drawings are added to sidebars printed on checked backgrounds, and the combination of all these different artistic styles added to several type sizes creates a disconcerting whole common to many British imports. The text is written in first-person from a visiting photographer’s viewpoint, but there is too much information (not all of it riveting) included about the nine clinic employees and all the various animals they help in just one day. Although Casey’s collage style is intriguing, and both her human and animal characters in watercolor are charming, there’s not enough story to work as a picture book or enough information to succeed as easy nonfiction. Cute critters, but not strong enough to cross the pond. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-8)