Beyond The Pigeon: 5 More Sassy Animals in Picture Books

Squirrel Nutkin (The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, by Beatrix Potter)
Nutkin is the O.G. of the sassy animal community. Unique among his squirrel brethren, he shows no respect or deference to Old Brown, the owl who exacts tribute from all the squirrels that harvest acorns from his island. Not only does Nutkin refuse to bow and scrape before Old Brown, he also delivers saucy rhymes to the predator’s face. Unlike many of the more recent sassy animals, he doesn’t get away with his shenanigans unscathed. He keeps teasing the owl until Old Brown seizes him and in Nutkin’s haste to get away, he loses a tail. But although he now rolls bob-tail style, Nutkin never loses his spirit.

Gang of backyard squirrels (Those Darn Squirrels, by Adam Rubin)
The squirrels in this book carry on in the proud tradition of Squirrel Nutkin, vexing Old Man Fookwire to distraction. This inveterate grump’s only joy derives from painting pictures of the birds in his backyard. But when he tries to attract them by setting up bird feeders, the squirrels raid the seeds, unconcerned about how vehemently he shakes his fist at them. Fookwire tries to outsmart the squirrels through ever more elaborate birdseed holders, but the squirrels are like, “P’shaw. You’ll have to do better than that to outsmart us.”

Toestomper and his insect friends (Toestomper and the Bad Butterflies, by Sharleen Collicott)
Toestomper is a bad-to-the bone apparent guinea pig with spiked bracelets and a biker’s bandana. In the first book, Toestomper and the Caterpillars, he hangs out with his palls the Rowdy Ruffians, a rat, mole, and lizard of equally ill repute who take pride in being “mean, rude, and disgusting.” But one day Toestomper stomps on the a nest of a group of adorable fuzzy blue caterpillars, leaving them homeless. When they turn up at his house, whimpering for help, he can’t resist. He takes them in and soon enough they’ve won his heart and tamed his rowdy soul. In the sequel, Toestomper and the Bad Butterflies, the caterpillars take a lesson from their adoptive father and transform into the rowdiest, sassiest butterflies you’ve ever seen, ready to defend their town from a hippopotamus foe named Big Tooth.

The eponymous bunny (Battle Bunny, by Mac Barnett and Jon Sciezka)
Adults might recognize this book as metafiction; kids will just consider it a good time. In this story, a boy named Alex has improved an old-timey picture book called “Birthday Bunny” by scribbling over the illustrations and crossing out and editing certain portions of the text. Birthday Bunny transforms into Battle Bunny through a penciled in eye patch, a villainous eyebrow and access to all manner of pyrotechnics. While the sappy story underneath sought to instruct young readers on the virtues of being a good friend, the sassy animal takeover of this book involves the Battle Bunny’s evil plot to control his forest friends. As Mark Twain wrote, “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”

Tacky (Tacky the Penguin and other books by Helen Lester)
You can’t miss Tacky standing in a lineup next to his penguin friends Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly and Perfect. Tacky’s the slightly overweight bird in a bright yellow flowered shirt. He cannonballs when his friends gracefully dive. He croaks out a tune while his friends sing sweetly. And by being different—inadvertently sassy, really, a sass that springs from never trying to edit himself to fit in with others—he saves the day in every book he stars in. He’s the Bill Murray of the sassy animal community.
Who are your favorite sassy animals from picture books?