Charlotte Voake has been around for ever: since my grown-up children were small, anyway. This is another splendid addition to the canon. Melisssa has an odd pet. Her other friends do, too. A warthog, a worm, and elephant, a mole...... All unsuitable in their own way. Most unsuitable of all is a crocodile. What will happen when they all go round to tea to see him? A delightful tale that's just scarey enough for the three year old who will. I'm sure, love this book. ( )

Such a fun and silly book about outlandish pets. My only complaint is that the alligator doesn't actually eat Kevin, Bertrand, Melissa, Thomas, Betty, Arthur, Caroline, Simon, and Peter. ( )

It's true, I like any picture book where there's a strong possibility of a character getting eaten, but this one also shines in excellent vocabulary and a weirdly deadpan tone. Delightful! ( )

This review posted at The Children's Book and Media Review

People can have all kinds of different pets. Melissa has an octopus, but it’s not very suitable because he makes such a mess in the bathroom. Thomas has a mole, but the mole is always making tunnels and so is difficult to find. Betty can’t ever find her chameleon. Arthur’s warthog does exactly what it wants. Caroline has to use a ladder to hug her pet giraffe, and Simon’s doesn’t know which end of his worm he is supposed to talk to. Peter’s elephant is sometimes way too heavy. With all of these unsuitable pets, though, a crocodile that could eat its owners could be the most unsuitable pet of all!

This book doesn’t have lessons to learn from. Instead, it uses a lot of visual humor and charming illustrations to talk about pets. There isn’t a particular plot. Instead, there are examples of all the different kinds of unsuitable pets that the children in the book have. The last pet takes away some of the cuteness of the book and makes it somewhat alarming instead. The lack of a plot and the simple descriptions of why certain animals are unsuitable pets make it something of an odd book, but many children will enjoy the pictures and perhaps decide that they don’t want an unsuitable pet of their own. ( )

A humorous but not terribly memorable story about unsuitable pets, from an octopus to an elephant to the most unsuitable of all - a crocodile! Introduces some new vocabulary and interesting animals.

See also: A Hungry Lion, or, A Dwindling Assortment of Animals; Oliver and His Alligator; Dear Zoo ( )