In Peter Brown鈥檚 Children Make Terrible Pets, (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 40 pp., $16.99), an enthusiastic, tutu-wearing young bear named Lucy tries to adopt a lost human toddler as a pet. Author-illustrator Brown explains that the idea for the book stems from his own childhood when he brought home a frog he found in the woods and his mother asked him, 鈥淲ould you like it if a wild animal made YOU its pet?鈥�
Lucy鈥檚 mother doesn鈥檛 like the idea much either. 鈥淐hildren make terrible pets!鈥� she tells Lucy, but her daughter begs to keep Squeaker (she names the toddler after the only sound he makes) and it all goes wonderfully 鈥� at least for an hour or two.
Eventually, however, it begins to dawn on Lucy that caring for Squeaker is going to be quite hard work 鈥� at which point she鈥檚 happy to take him home to his parents. It all makes for a charming story 鈥� and perhaps a useful reality check for children eager to take on challenging pets.
