Take Your Pet to School Day

June 1, 2019
Devious pets change the school rule that bans them and experience a day of chaos and animal love. The opening spread shows a child holding a letter stating pets will be welcome at school on Friday in one hand, a hedgehog in the other. Turn the page, and every student is arriving with an animal in tow (what about those without pets?). After each class with the animals, the teachers declare the rule change a disaster. Indeed, chaos reigns in the music room, the library, and the art studio. The principal, a brown-skinned woman with short, dark hair, agrees--she didn't do it. But then, who did? "Meeoowww." A neatly printed letter reads: "We do not like your 'No Pets' rule. / We miss our kids when they're at school." The note is signed "Pets." The hopeful, pleading faces of the kids win the day--as long as the pets clean up their messes and behave--and the day is a success. But that doesn't mean the pets' plan to declare that every day be pet day will fly! Ashman's verses are bouncy, and Kaufman's brightly colored artwork will have readers poring over the details in her busy scenes and laughing at all the mischief. The people and their pets are diverse, especially the latter, which include an entire ant farm pulled in a red wagon, a hamster in a ball, a large snake, and a horse. This will certainly have readers yearning for pet days at their own schools. (Picture book. 4-8)

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June 24, 2019
Every kid at Maple View School brings home a curious but official-looking notice: on Friday, the no-pet rule will be suspended, so “bring your bunny, bird or dog,/your lizard, turtle, fish or frog.” And it seems like a lot of fun at first: the school’s opening song turns into cacophony as animals “howl with gusto, bleat with glee.” But art class and story time are a mess, and snack time—shown in a vertical spread—becomes chaos, even if a porcupine looks very cute eating a fully loaded hot dog. Whose idea was this, anyway? When the humans eventually figure out that the animals invited themselves, the creatures fess up: “We miss our kids when they’re at school.” Sprightly rhymes by Ashman (Outside My Window) and cheery, mischievous pictures by Kaufman (All Are Welcome) make this both a good giggle and a cautionary tale. Ages 3–7.