Books For Future Vets - “Veterinarian” by Peggy Parks

If you are a kid who wants to be a veterinarian, you are probably just like I was.   When I was a future veterinarian, I took every opportunity to make animals and veterinarians a part of my school work.   So if your teacher wants you to do more reading or you have a book report due next week, you’re probably on the hunt for a good book on veterinarians.

This week I took the time to read Veterinarian by Peggy Parks.  Any time a book shares veterinary medicine with children, I am excited.   This book was no exception. 

Veterinarianis a great book for that animal loving child who is looking for their first introduction to the veterinary profession.   Young readers will meet different types of veterinarians and hear about some of their very unique cases.   They also get to hear the personal story of an emergency veterinarian and understand that, for most veterinarians, veterinary medicine is a calling that started at a very young age.

Future veterinarians will find colorful photos throughout the book as they read.  They will hear advice from veterinarians such as the importance of science and math for an aspiring vet.   Some scientific terms are also introduced and bolded.   These bolded terms are defined for kids in glossary in the back.   Together these features create a nice introduction to veterinary science.

The weakness of Veterinarianis that it reminds me of viewing the Grand Canyon from an airplane.  You really don’t get even a fraction of the view that you would have from the ground and some things may not be as they appear.  Although this book interviews many types of veterinarians, the reader never sees photographs of those veterinarians or the cases they are describing.  Instead they see stock photography that is unrelated to the text.   For example, it was very disappointing to hear the story of a veterinarian who is treating a dolphin and not be able to find photographs of the doctor or his patient.

There are also phrases that aren’t quite accurate.   For example “Household Pet Doctors” is not the term used to describe veterinarians who care for family pets.  No veterinarian would describe him or herself in this way.   It would have been great for the author to share the terms used by actual doctors such as “Small Animal Veterinarians” and or “Companion Animal Veterinarians”.  I know when I was a future vet, how important it was for me to use the terms real veterinarians used.

So if you are just staring your exploration of veterinary medicine, check this book out.  If you have been interested in veterinarians and animals for a while, this book probably won’t hold your interest.   You need to find a book that goes deeper and explores even more of the profession.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Chris