Daisy to the Rescue: True Stories of Daring Dogs, Paramedic Parrots, and Other Animal Heroes by Jeff Campbell | Book Review + #Giveaway

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

With their love and companionship, animals help to make our lives better every day. But sometimes, to our utter amazement and everlasting gratitude, animals literally save our lives. Daisy to the Rescue celebrates over fifty of these heroic animals with stunning illustrated portraits and detailed accounts of their exploits. The book asks important questions about why these animals act the way they do—often putting themselves in harm’s way in the process. Today, scientists vigorously debate whether other animals share our capacity for empathy, compassion, morality, and altruism, and amazing new research is continually revising our understanding of the human-animal bond. Daisy to the Rescue presents these findings and applies them to these extreme life-saving situations. Taken together, these rescue stories make a compelling case for the presence of compassion in other animals and for the vital importance of the human-animal bond. The dramatic, moving stories in Daisy to the Rescue provide a hopeful message about our world. Not only do they contain startling evidence of the mental and emotional capacities of animals, but they also demonstrate the healing, transformative power of our intimate connection with those incredible beings with whom we share the world.

Why Did I Read This Book?

Let it be known that I am such a sucker for animal stories, especially when the point of the story is not the animal dying. I initially became interested in Daisy To The Rescue: True Stories of Daring Dogs, Paramedic Parrots, and Other Animal Heroes by Jeff Campbell based on the cover, which is blue with this awesome pen and ink drawing of a dog. For real, covers really honestly do peak my interest. Also, I liked that this book was super different from everything else that I’ve been reading all year. Sometimes I just need a break from young adult fiction or fiction in general, so non-fiction ends up really appealing to me.

What’s It All About?

Whenever I put this question in a review, typically the subtitle says it all. In this case, that is true. Daisy To The Rescue is all about how different animals have come to the rescue of humans in various ways. It talks about what may potentially drive animal compassion. It talks about whether the animal had intended the rescue or not. The book is divided into four parts — the first part is about domestic companion animals, or pets, the second part is about service animals, the third is about wild animals, and the last part is about myths and legendary rescues that may or may not be true.

What Was My Favorite Story?

Okay, so the majority of the stories are really interesting and exciting — I think I would probably have to go with the one about the Ethiopian lions saving a young girl from kidnappers, although TWIST it’s possible the lions might have been viewing her as prey, but TWIST if that’s the case, they would have just eaten her and be done with it.

There’s also a story about a dog that was on the Navy SEAL team that found Bin Laden that’s really fascinating. I had no clue a dog was involved with that. His name is Cairo and his story is worth reading.

What Are The Highlights?

• The pictures for each chapter — it’s no secret that I love pen and ink illustrations, and so I loved that every single chapter opened up with a pen and ink drawing of the animal involved in the rescue.
• I loved the layout of this book. Each story is only three or so pages. Each chapter opens up with a drawing of the animal as well as statistics on the animal, like their name, breed, date of the heroic act, situation, who was saved, and the animal’s legacy.
• The short chapters were perfect for this being a book for a busy person, because in a spare moment I felt totally fine reading a chapter of three pages and setting the book down to go do whatever was required of me at the moment. If you are the sort of person who cannot stop in the middle of a chapter, this is the perfect book.
• The discussion on animal intent and emotions of animals, I loved that. I loved that there was a bit more to this book than just stories of animal rescues.
• Daisy To The Rescue is a super quick read, again with the chapter thing, I was consistently like just one more story and then I will go to bed, ending up reading 50 or so pages in one fell swoop.

What Are The Lowlights?

• Just one lowlight — and that is that in some chapters there are these supplemental inserts at the top of the page like in a box and I didn’t love that because I would read the chapter and have to go back and read the supplemental insert. I think I would have liked it better if those were placed at the end of each chapter instead of the middle.
• OH! I thought of another — in a lot of the chapters, different stories were referred to and it would say X story on page Y, and I didn’t love that because I had already read the story and thus didn’t need to go back to read it, but I guess maybe that’s intended for people who aren’t reading this book in sequential order.

Who Should Read This Book?

Honestly, I can already see myself giving a copy of Jeff Campbell’s Daisy To The Rescue as a stocking stuffer to an animal lover I know. I mean, I was at the point reading this book where I was kind of plotting out mailing this book to a specific person who I know will just love it.

• People who love animals
• People who ‘don’t have time to read’
• People who get pissed off at dog deaths in books (thankfully the vast majority of these animals live through their rescues)
• People who love dogs
• People who love dolphins
• People who love cats (yes, spoiler alert: cats actually sometimes rescue people, I know I am shocked too!)

Sum It Up With A GIF:

Any excuse to use this GIF because I will never not laugh at this GIF.

Thanks to Zest Books, I have one copy of DAISY TO THE RESCUE up for giveaway. US Only. Must be 13 or older. Use the rafflecopter. Check my Privacy Policy. The publisher will be shipping the book out. I do not keep mailing address information after it has been passed along to the publisher.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Latest posts by April (Books&Wine) (see all)

• Mistakes We Never Made by Hannah Brown | Book Review - November 9, 2024
• A Werewolf’s Guide To Seducing A Vampire by Sarah Hawley | Book Review - October 12, 2024
• Four Witch Books For Autumn Vibes - September 22, 2024