I have not read Animal Rescue Friends volumes one and two, as I happened to find Animal Rescue Friends: Learning New Tricks: Volume 3 as an online reader and thought it sounded interesting without doing further research. It can be a standalone story, but I assume you should probably read volume one which will introduce you to the characters and why they are working with animals that need to be adopted.
This is a clever book and feels as if Babysitters Club’s Little Sister Karen combined with animals that needed to be adopted, but without all the hoopla and shenanigans. Things are both entertaining and educational. You learn about rats being social creatures and how a three-legged dog can do everything a four legged dog can do, but perhaps with a little assistance. Like the characters of one story you learn about sharing responsibilities and more. One thing I noticed was that the fact of finding a “good fit” in an obvious manner was not done. I am assuming it is due to the age level the book is set for (around ages five/six to be read to, and about a young 10-11 for solo reading), they showed more than tell. This was most obvious with one story where there were several families wanting to look at a dog, but one was more interested in being an influencer, one family thought the dog had too much energy, one was allergic. Finally the adopting family had the “right criteria” but it was implied a good fit was happening. 
The fun part about everything is that each story is a short chapter. You can read a story, stop, go back. This allows for earlier readers to take their time and not feel like they have to read it all in one sitting, or you can use it as a bedtime story where you do a chapter or two a night. And of course, another fun part was the illustrations. Various authors and illustrators partook in creating this volume and the series. The art is typical graphic novel style with very bright, glossy, smooth, computer looking illustrations. Things are not overly detailed, but have a nice backdrop feeling to them. Harriet Low, Stephanie Cooke, Chelsea Trousdale, Barbara Perz Marquez, Katie Longua and Megan Kearney are some of the people who took part in the fun of things.
