Playground Pets

Hi! I'm Juliet. I'm ten years old. And I'm nearly a vet!

Chelsea and I have such a cool school – we get to have playground pets! Guineas pigs, lizards, fish and insects are all part of our classroom. This week, we have a replacement teacher. Poor Miss Fine doesn't know much about animals. Luckily we do (it's so handy nearly being a vet).

We're going to be flat-out keeping track of everything, but I'm sure nothing will go too wrong . . .

About the Author

Rebecca Johnson is an Australian author, teacher and mother of two. Juliet, Nearly a Vet is her first fiction series with Penguin. She has also written a best-selling non-fiction series of adventures featuring Australian wildlife, which has sold more than 2.6 million copies. From the author: When I was growing up, I was mad about animals. Not just the normal kind like cats, dogs and horses, but anything that moved.

The best part of all was that I actually lived next door to a vet! We are still great friends and he's 95 now. One of my fondest memories of growing up is going out in a canoe with my sister and brother after a f lood and -rescuing animals that were stranded on sticks and twigs and ferrying them to safety. Not every girl I know would be happiest in a canoe full of mice, bugs and the odd green snake, but I'm sure Juliet would!