Little Lizard's New Pet

May 1, 2011

K-Gr 1-This beginning reader follows Gary Lizard as he goes with his parents to pick out his first pet. A dog and cat are both deemed too big, but a fish is just right. The text is comprised of easy sight words and simple sentences. The illustrations are just as basic as the story, offering visual cues to the vocabulary with few extraneous details. The story has little to set itself apart from the crowd of books just like it. Emma Dodd's What Pet to Get (Scholastic, 2008) has more visual interest and humor, and Mo Willems's "Elephant & Piggie" books (Hyperion) show how stories solely reliant on sight words don't have to be devoid of creativity.-Sarah Townsend, Norfolk Public Library, VA

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