Children Make Terrible Pets

Lucille Beatrice Bear finds a boy in the woods and decides to adopt him as a pet in this hilarious picture-book from Peter Brown, the author/artist behind such classics as The Curious Garden and My Teacher Is a Monster. Although her mother warns her that children make terrible pets, Lucy persists in keeping Squeaker - so-named because of the squeaking noise he makes - and at first all seems well. But when Squeaker makes trouble, and then disappears, it seems that Lucy's mother's warning was on point...

An entertaining inversion of the usual "child wants to adopt wild animal" scenario, Children Make Terrible Pets gently drives home the point that certain creatures (like bears!) are simply not meant to be kept as pets, while also offering show more an engaging story in its own right. By making the child the pet, Brown allows young reader/listeners to think about what it really means to be separated from one's own natural family and kept by another species. As always with this author/artist's books, the illustrations, created using pencil and cut-paper, are immensely engaging. Recommended to all Peter Brown fans, and to anyone looking for creative and fun stories addressing the issue of responsible pet ownership and interaction with wild creatures. show less

This story is a witty and humorous twist on the typical story of a child's first pet. When Lucy the Bear meets a child in the woods, she bring him home, names him Squeaker and begs her mother to keep him. Just as human mothers scold, Mama Bear warns Lucy, "Children make terrible pets!" Lucy and Squeaker embark upon a day of fun, but through a series of surprising events, things don't go as planned and readers are left to ponder ... do children really make terrible pets?

Love this book! The illustrations are just priceless. This book had everyone who read it, adult and child alike, laughing out loud. Perfect example of a picture book - where the illustrations tell the full story/round out the words. Lucy Bear finds a little boy in the woods, and decides she wants to keep him as her pet. Her mother is not impressed. Lucy finds out that while children are fun to play with they make terrible pets - they are ruin the furniture and they are hard to house train. Her pet boy eventually runs away, back to his own family. Lucy sees that he is happy with his family and makes the hard decision to leave him there. The last page, where Lucy finds another inappropriate pet is classic! Highly recommended.
A good show more readaloud for older storytimes. show less

Really a lot of fun, and insightful, too. The retro illustrations are an innovative choice - because there's other stuff that's perfectly modern, like a dishwasher. Love the litterbox. Love the bouncing joy at the OMG moment when the girl bear first spots the child. Love the mom's reaction - You can keep it one condition - you're responsible!

Children Make Terrible Pets is an absolutely adorable story with a bit of a twist. In this tale, a super cute bear named Lucy finds a pet and brings him home, as many children have. Eventually, Lucy convinces her mother to let her keep her new pet, and name him Squeaker; but, Squeaker is not just any old pet—Squeaker is a little boy! Soon, Lucy discovers that the little boy does not make a very good pet at all. Squeaker makes lots of messes and he is impossible to potty train. Then, Squeaker goes missing and Lucy and her mother go in search to find him. Finally, they find Squeaker back at home with his own family and Lucy realizes it is time to say goodbye to her friend.
The illustrations in Children Make Terrible Pets are extremely show more unique and add some new-age flair to the book. Many of the pages feature wood-like borders and the text is placed in different colored cut-out text-boxes. The drawings of the bears and people are sketched in pencil and look very clean. This story is definitely one to which children can relate, especially those animal lovers that are always bringing pets home (I know I was!), and best of all it presents the classic dilemma with a new twist. All in all, this is a great new picture book from 2010 and I would recommend it for early elementary students. show less

I enjoyed this book because it was a fun twist on the story of bringing home a creature that is found in the wild. Instead of a boy bringing home an animal that he found in the wild, the bear brought home the boy. I liked that the book showed the responsibilities and friendship that come with taking care of a "pet", but it was also a good message when the bear realized that the boy belonged with his own kind and his own family.

I think the overall message of this book is teaching children about responsibility because Lucy learns that taking care of a pet isn't as easy or as great as she thought it would be.

I liked this book for a few reasons. I loved the point of view / plot of the story. Lucy is a bear, who finds a human little boy and wants to make him her pet. It is humorous because of the twist on a "first pet" story since it deals with an animal wanting a human for a pet.

I also enjoyed this book because of the illustrations. They were almost 3D looking in the way that the author's use of shadows makes it look like the things are coming out of the page. And I liked that the words of the story were in a box with a solid background because it made the show more words pop out. The text of the story itself was in one color, and then the speech bubbles of the different characters were in their own colors as well. Doing this added color to the story that had a very faded brown type of theme throughout the pages. The illustrations are also humorous to go along with the silly story. show less