Pet this Book by Jessica Young - ESSENTIAL

Pet this Book by Jessica Young, illustrated by Daniel Wiseman. PICTURE BOOK. Bloomsbury, 2018. $16. 9781681195070

BUYING ADVISORY: Pre-K - ESSENTIAL. 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH 

Told is bouncy rhyme, this book follows a girl dressed as a veterinarian as she explains how to take care of a series of animals. The cat needs petting, the parrot needs conversing, the dog needs scrubbing and so forth. The narrator invites the reader to preform each of these actions for the animals. The pages are not quite board book thickness, but they have more weight than a normal picture book. 

I don’t think I will ever get tired of this new genre of interactive picture books. It is so engaging for little readers and makes books come alive, which will hopefully create life long readers. On top of this, the book represents children of color, teaches how to be kind to animals and relates that kindness to animals with being kind to each other. A lot of good messages in this book. 

Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher