Review of The White Guinea-Pig

Ringing changes on themes that can seem predictable at first sight is a rare and enviable skill. Ursula Dubosarsky, an Australian novelist, has chosen pet ownership. The White Guinea Pig, a challenging novel for children at the top of the age range, is about a girl who doesn't - and then decides that she does - want a white guinea pig as a pet. But the ownership of pets, as every adult knows, is really about the painful business of learning to be responsible for someone else, and this novel explores these increasingly burdensome diffifulties with tact and moral alertness.