My Pet Book

by Bob Staake

Overview

Award-winning author-illustrator Bob Staake has created a rollicking picture book about a boy and his most unusual pet!
 
Most pets are cats and dogs, but what happens when a boy wants a different kind of pet, one that doesn’t meow or bark? Bob Staake’s exuberant tale of a little boy and the pet of his dreams will appeal to anyone whose best friends are . . . books! Books make the perfect pets, the boy decides, and chooses a bright red one. When it goes missing, a lively adventure is in store for readers who love a happy ending. Soon kids everywhere will wish for a pet book of their very own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375981869
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
Lexile:	AD560L (what's this?)
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

BOB STAAKE is the creator of many books for children, including Bluebird; The Red Lemon, a 2006 New York Times Best Illustrated Book; The Donut Chef, a Children's Choice Book Awards finalist; and Look! A Book! He's also a prolific and highly acclaimed commercial illustrator whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, Time, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

Editorial Reviews

This boy is delightfully well-spoken, and distinctly precocious; children listening to My Pet Book or reading it to themselves will most likely see him as a kindred spirit, or at the very least find his quirks amusing…My Pet Book offers visual delights…Though Staake's style is bold and graphic, many of his pages are crowded with funny details…It's a goofy, good-natured adventure that should appeal to any book lover—even one who likes kittens and puppies.

The New York Times - Sarah Harrison Smith

2014-04-30
In this cheer for books and reading, a boy wants a pet—but one that's easy, lacks fleas and won't run away.His accommodating parents suggest a book, and together, they trek to the Loyal Neighborhood Bookopolis, where a "frisky red hardcover" captivates. Leash-trained, this unique pet "never needed bathing. / And its ears would never droop. / But best of all that little pet… / It didn't even poop!" Everything's swell, until the day the boy returns from school to find that the maid has mistakenly given his pet to charity. The pair race to the thrift store to search for the beloved tome, finding it hiding in a doghouse in the store's pet section. Staake's quatrains scan well, though at times they approach—well, doggerel. The wacky premise is elevated to towering heights via the over-the-top digital illustrations, wherein round-headed people, multihued from persimmon to turquoise, cavort with dogs and cats of every description and temperament. Perspective in interior rooms is dizzying, while cityscapes are a gaudy geometry of tightly packed buildings, bridges, parks and populace. Obligingly, Staake finds room to portray this unusual pet's power to transport its owner through its "tales / Of awesomeness and glory."One of Staake's sillier, more ebullient outings—and that's saying something. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews