About Paddy Peanut

Ten-year-old Paddy Peanut is a fire of ideas, but in the summer of 1960 her spark fizzles. Intent on leaving a mark, she plans a Wild Animal Kingdom at her family’s lakeside cottage. The animals disagree—her turtle and snake escape, her frog refuses to jump, she is even crazed caring for her ants-in-her pants little sistte,r who Paddy thinks, might as well be a wild animal—and her “kingdom” collapses in hilarious ways. Then "Aunt Claire" introduces Paddy to the Pinery Pointe Wild Animal Sanctuary, where orphaned or injured wildlife are healed and, when possible, are returned to the wild. Volunteering there, Paddy learns that building something real and meaningful looks less like cages and more like feeding charts, quiet patience, and brave goodbyes. She also comes to acknowledge that the paradoxical woes that she thought were restrictive to herself actual reflect lives globally, in all kinds of families, communities, and the natural environment. This is an eye-awakening experience