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Home > Librarians@Random > A Word from Pat Scales

May 2008

Dear Fellow Book Lovers:

CHEERS TO OUR PETS

Many children and young adults have pets, or have friends and family who have pets. These animal friends are often dogs or cats, but some people have uncommon pets like snakes, monkeys, etc. There have been people who have even tried to make pets of alligators, crocodiles, wolves, and bears. These animals that thrive in the wild aren’t really suited for domestication. But it’s fun to read about these animals and imagine them as pets. Since National Pet Week is celebrated the first of May, this is an appropriate time to offer children books that pay tribute to pets. It is also a time when books can be used to spark children’s imaginations about animals and the profound affect they have on their owners. You can visit this Web site: http://www.petweek.org/petweek/aboutpetweek.html for information about National Pet Week, and for free materials.

Here are a few suggestions for libraries about celebrating National Pet Week:

Invite a veterinarian to speak to children about good pet care.

Ask someone from the local hospital and area nursing homes to talk about the visiting pets programs.

Host someone from an animal shelter to speak to children about pet adoption.

Ask children to work together to develop an annotated bibliography of books about pets that may be distributed to visitors at the local animal shelter.

Introduce children to the vast array of books about pets. Use these books to spark conversation about their own pets. Here is a sampling from Random House:

A Dog Called Grk by Joshua Doder (Ages 9-12)

Someday When My Cat Can Talk by Caroline Lazo; illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker (Ages 4-8)

The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey; illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren (Ages 2-5)

My Dog is As Smelly As Dirty Socks by Hanoch Piven (Ages 4-8)

Peg Leg Peke by Brie Spangler (Ages 3-6)

Waking Up Wendell by April Stevens; illustrated by Tad Hills (Ages 4-8)

My Big Dog by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel; illustrated by Janet Steven (Ages 2-5)

The Trouble with Tuck by Theodore Taylor (Ages 9-12)

A school pet day is celebrated in Cool Zone with the Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume (Ages 5-9). Ask children think about how the characters in The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (Ages 8-12) would celebrate National Pet Week. What about Maude March in The Misadventures of Maude March: Or Trouble Rides a Fast Horse by Audrey Couloumbis (Ages 8-12)?

Ask readers to read a book about an unusual animal character that they would most want as a pet. Such characters may include:

Petunia (a goose) by Roger Duvoisin (Ages 4-8)
Veronica (a hippopotamus) by Roger Duvoisin (Ages 4-8)

The frog in It's Mine! by Leo Lionni (Ages 4-6)

The salamander in

The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer (Ages 5-8)

Anatole (a mouse) by Eve Titus (Ages 5-9)

Sponsor an essay contest called Whacky Pets. For example, readers may wish to write about Dr. Seuss’ Horton as a pet.

Horton Hears A Who!
Horton Hatches the Egg

Ask readers to consider what they know about the following characters and choose a pet for them:

The Berenstain Bears

Junie B. Jones

Gooney Bird Greene

Anastasia Krupnik

Nate the Great

Velma Gratch

Lucy Rose

What about their favorite authors? What type of pet would the following writers most likely own? Ask them to consider what they know about the authors’ novels. Then give the pet they choose an appropriate name.

David Almond

Alan Armstrong

Judy Blume

Bruce Coville

Christopher Paul Curtis

Candace Fleming

Carl Hiaasen

Lois Lowry

Barbara Park

Zilpha Keatley Snyder