A Pet For Petunia, by Paul Schmid

I discovered this book more recently than my previous entries, but I find that I enjoy the story just as much as I would if it had been available for me as a child.

Petunia loves skunks, and even has a plush one to show how much she adores them.  She loves them so much that she begs her parents to let her have one as a pet.

Her parents are sensible of course, and they tell her she isn't allowed to have one. When pressed for a reason, they give the obvious answer: the smell.  Petunia can't believe that her parents would say such a terrible thing about such an adorable animal, and reacts in the typical manner of a child being told no.

Petunia runs away from home, into the woods where she encounters a skunk!  It's her wish come true...until she smells it!  She runs back home, silenced by the terrible smell, and curls up in bed with her plush skunk.

Thankfully, Petunia is not traumatized by the truth that skunks do in fact stink.  She still thinks they are adorable and is happy with her toy skunk, until she sees something else in the woods....(I won't spoil it, but I'm sure Petunia's parents wish she wanted a normal animal).

The art style is simple, and Petunia herself is adorably drawn: with messy hair, big smile and a purple striped dress, she looks like most little girls her age.  Like Petunia, I too have wanted improbable pets (tigers, seals, polar bears, and yes even skunks), so I completely understand her logic.  Petunia is most certainly a handful for her parents, and this won't be the last time she is seen (Petunia Goes Wild, a title that should come as no surprise).  This is a great book to read aloud to your kids, it's silly and enjoyable and it does, at least for a moment, dissuade children from having a pet like a skunk.

Dog Heaven, Cynthia Rylant

I hadn't intended for my 2nd blog post to be on such a heavy subject. However, last weekend my family and I had to put Cuddles, our 17 year old Cocker Spaniel down, so this review is my tribute to him.

Losing a loved one is never easy, and it is difficult to explain to children without it being confusing, complicated or incredibly emotional.  To me this book is a great source of comfort in a difficult time: its simple ideas and artwork remind me of what I thought Heaven was like a child.  I have seen other books on death of pets and instead of being simple, easy to understand and helpful, they are tedious, full of facts and abruptly push the reader into moving on from their loss (As an example, The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst, where the main character tries to come up with 10 good things about his cat Barney who died, and the last thing is that by burying Barney in the backyard he will help the flowers to grow).

The illustrations are done in acrylic, and are purposely made to look as though a child had drawn them.  By doing so, the readers are able to relate to the pictures and the story, as it looks like something they might draw or paint if they were asked what "Dog Heaven" might look like.

While admittedly the book does not deal directly with the loss of a pet, its purpose is to offer a small bit of comfort in a time of sadness, and in that Dog Heaven succeeds.  This book does its job whether the reader is religious or not; yes there are mentions of God and Heaven, but the purpose isn't to force religion down children's throats. Dog Heaven was written to give children a sense of comfort at the loss of their dog (or cat, there is the companion book Cat Heaven), and that small hope that someday they'll see their beloved pet again is exactly what this book provides.

The Baby Blue Cat Who Said No, Ainslie Pryor

Choosing one bedtime story was always difficult in my house, I had so many books how could I narrow down my choices to just ONE!  However, this book was one of my more requested bedtime stories, and it could only be read to me by my mom (she got the voices just right for this story, and my dad was notorious for giving male characters female voices and vice versa).  The Baby Blue Cat had a few other adventures (And The Dirty Dog Brothers, And The Whole Batch of Cookies, And The Smiley Worm Doll) but this was my first introduction to him, and his antics.

The story is simple enough: the Baby Blue Cat, unlike his well behaved siblings, doesn't want to do anything! He doesn't want to eat dinner, dessert or even have a bedtime story.  Mama Cat takes care of her other kittens and then returns to deal with the stubborn Baby Blue Cat, who still refuses everything.  Distraught, Mama Cat sits in the living room unable to deal with her willful kitten.  Baby Blue Cat of course feels guilty for his behavior and apologizes to Mama Cat, and decides that yes he will eat his supper, and his dessert, and would like a bedtime story.  So Mama Cat takes care of him and puts him to bed, only to say that he must be very tired (presumably from his stubborn behavior) which we all know the answer to her question has to be...NO!

I loved this story then and I still do now, probably because like Baby Blue Cat, I too could be defiant at times (which has not changed). 

It begins with a question:

And ends in a similar manner:

The simplicity of the story is its charm.  There is no long complicated plot with multiple characters or hard to pronounce words, there is simply the story with a beginning and an end.  The art matches the story perfectly, simple drawings and light colors which are used make the illustrations just as easy to follow as the story.

My one criticism with it lies with the response to Baby Blue Cats behavior.  Obviously Mama Cat has her hands full with four growing kittens, however Baby Blue Cat behaves rather rudely, and still manages to get dessert and a bedtime story.  Yes he does apologize for his behavior, but letting him have all the same things that the other well behaved cats got seems to me rather unfair to them.  This is a minor problem, and only one that I have realized as an adult and having worked with children.  I don't believe that rewarding bad behavior is the intention of this book, but I can see how it might come across to some people as though it is.

Sadly I've been forced to track extra copies of these books down through used book stores and websites because they were published once in hardcover (in the 1980's) and once in paperback (in the 1990's).  But if you manage to find this or any of the others in the series I highly recommend all of them!