Crazy Pets

Pets can be a wonderful thing. They play with you, they cuddle, they let you know you're important (unless you have a cat). At some point in all our lives, everyone has wanted a pet of their very own. This phenomenon is widely celebrated in children's literature, but some literary pets are just a bit stranger than others. Click on the titles below to reserve some of my favorite stories about strange and silly pets.

--Andrea W., Headquarters

Picture Books

"A Pet for Petunia" by Paul Schmid--Sweet and sassy little Petunia really really really wants a pet. But how can her parents say yest when the pet she wants is a skunk?

"Peanut" by Linas Alsenas--In a case of hilariously mistaken identity, a little old lady meets something in the park that she thinks is a dog and takes him home. 

"Sophie's Squash" by Pat Zietlow Miller-- Who says your best pet has to be an animal? In this sweetly odd little book, Sophie finds companionship with a special squash named Bernice.

"Children Make Terrible Pets" by Peter Brown--For a real twist on weird pets, see what it would be like to be a pet for someone else! When Lucy the bear finds a little boy in the woods, she begs her mom to keep him, then finds out that maybe it's not the best idea.

"Sparky" by Jenny Ofill--A little girl really really wants a pet, but her mom says she can only have one "as long as it doesn't need to be walked or bathed or fed." So after a little research at the library, she decides to get a sloth. But having a sloth for a pet turns out to be a little bit different than she thought.






"The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish" by Neil Gaiman--For the older grade-school student there's this hilariously weird book about a boy who trades his dad for two goldfish. Can parents be pets?

"Capyboppy" by Bill Peet--Have you ever heard of a capybara? They're the largest rodent in the world and native to South America. Author and illustrator Bill Peet and his family had a capybara for a pet, and he wrote and illustrated this delightful book about it.









Chapter Books

Judy Moody series by Megan MacDonald--The ever delightful Judy Moody has not only a toad for a pet, but a venus fly trap.

"Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White--This book is such a classic that it may not seem weird to have a pet pig like Fern, but how many people do you know who have their own Wilbur?

"The Yearling" by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings--In another wonderful classic tale, a boy befriends a fawn. That's hard to imagine around here, isn't it?

"Icefall" by Matthw Kirby--In this chilling tale of suspense in a frozen fjord, Solveig has to pick out the traitor in the midst of friends with the help of her pet raven, Munnin.

"Flora & Ulysses" by Kate DiCamillo--For a pet that's not just strange but also quirky in personality, pick the 2014 Newbery Award winner starring Ulysses, a squirrel who writes poetry.

"Rascal" by Stirling North--This is a lovely and true story of a boy who raises a baby raccoon.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling--I couldn't leave out Harry and his friends with their special messenger pets--Hedwig the owl, Scabbers the rat (who turns out to be a bit of a surprise), and lets not get started on Hagrid's beloved menagerie of magical creatures.