By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Brenna Benson

Title: Masks
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Illustrator: Pleasant Company
Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications
Number of Pages: 91

I read a book called Masks, by Laurie Halse Anderson.

The main characters' names are Sunita, Brenna, David, Maggie, and Mittens, Sunita's cat. I think that the kids are about ten years old and Mittens is two. All of the main characters work at Wild at Heart, a veterinary clinic.

Sunita is very upset when her cat, Mittens, has to have surgery because she ate a piece of yarn that is clogging her intestines. Mittens seems to handle the surgery well, until she starts getting fevers and she's very weak. These are all signs of a possible fatal disease that Mittens can get: Peritonitis. Sunita is very sad, but then she joins a mask-making class, where her friends think that the teacher is a witch! Sunita doesn't agree, but her friends are sure that she's one because of her long, black hair and her pet black cat!

One day, Sunita's dad asks her to work as an intern at a company called AVM, which makes medicines for animals that are sick. Suddenly, she finds out that the company does tests on animals and even sometimes kills them…
I can't tell you what happens to Mittens, or what Sunita does when she finds out about AVM, or, if the witch lady is really a witch. All that I can tell you is that if you are an animal lover like I am, you'll love this book! You may get sad at some parts, too.

In my opinion, Masks was a good book. The only thing that I didn't like about it, is that an animal dies, and I love animals, so I got sad. I loved the word choice in the book, because it describes the characters very well. I can also tell what the characters' personalities are very well.

I would recommend this book to kids who are between 9 and 11 years old.

If you like this book, I would also recommend reading the book, Muddy Four Paws by Jean Ure. (December, 2002)