Herriot--born James Alfred Wight--liked to say he was just a simple country veterinarian. But readers and critics alike appreciated the joy he found in his hard work, laughed at his humorous anecdotes, marveled at the curative practices he explained, and relaxed with his descriptions of the English countryside. In Herriot's later years, to the delight of children and adults alike, he transformed some of his most endearing vignettes into picture book stories. Although these tales are short and uncomplicated, their emotional content is vintage Herriot: they exude love, humor, and, at times, elicit tears. They have, in fact, the same peculiar magic that his adult fiction has, a blend, according to Mary Ann Grossmann in the
Chicago Tribune, of "finely drawn and colorful characters, empathy for humans and animals, a good story set in a gentler time, humor, respect for uneducated but hard-working people and an appreciation of the land." Grossmann further commented, "There's something else in Herriot's writing that I can't quite articulate, a glow of decency that makes people want to be better humans.
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