Jeannie and Mary Jo, seventh graders, discover that a construction company is about to kill prairie dog colonies in their area, to make way for construction projects. Enchanted by the prairie dogs, and horrified that the company wants to kill them, Jeannie sets out to save the animals. This easy-to-read middle-grade novel treads that thin line between fiction and information successfully, as Jeannie enlists the help of her friends, her teachers, and others in the community. There's a lot of information imparted along the way, which could have become a real drag, but Perry manages to avoid going too far. There is a realistic balance between success and failure, and believable dynamics between all the characters, with a good bit of middle-school drama thrown in to provide verisimilitude. All in all, a successful little book. Not award-worthy, but reading-worthy.