This single-named illustrator is quickly becoming a new force in a French picture book invasion!
Extraordinary Pets
by Barroux
Blue Apple Books
ISBN: 978 1 60905 011 5
Audience: ages 3 to 7
A mouse is a buddy, but… an octopus is a swim buddy!
These and a host of other wild pets make up the daydreamy proposals of a little boy who would like to bring home something a little more interesting than your average dog, cat, or fish.
Each page opens out to show the contrast between your everyday, ho-hum sort of pet and the one he thinks would be more exciting, and also lets kids do a little guessing, which is always a hit. For kids who dream big, this a great fun.
And! You have a chance to win one of two copies – see below for details.
Naughty and Nice
Plain and Fancy
by Barroux
Blue Apple Books
ISBN: 978 0 60905 012 2 (Plain & Fancy)
978 1 60905 013 9 (Naughty & Nice)
Audience: ages 1 to 6
Emily and Alex may be twins, but they are far from identical. Instead, these books highlight opposites using all sorts of situations they get themselves into, any of which are completely familiar to your average kid who knows about a leetle bit of trouble – but not too much.
Sometimes, the two work together to create their mayhem, and sometimes they are up against each other. Often, Alex is more boisterous and rough than Emily, but she gets him back at times, making for a good back-and-forth balance.
The illustrations say more than the words, here, and are really the soul of the books, which were a great vehicle for bringing his illustrations to a new audience in North America. Why should the French have all the fun?
Bunny’s Lessons
by Harriet Ziefert, ill. Barroux
Blue Apple Books
ISBN: 978 1 6090 028 3
Audience: ages 3 to 7
A little white stuffed Bunny learns a lot from observing his boy, Charlie. He learns about emotions, about time-outs, and about forgiveness, about loneliness and love, and many things in between.
The book is sweet and at times, unexpectedly poignant, as a stuffed companion can sometimes be left aside, even by the most loving child, and in this case, the bunny feels the hurt of this keenly. It’s a real charmer, though, and a nice introduction to a range of familiar feelings.
Sweeter than Candy: Win a copy of Extraordinary Pets!
Enter in comments by telling us what strange pet your child has imagined having – or has had!
The contest ends on May 9th, 2010.
UrbanMoms.ca members are eligible to win so don’t forget to sign-in. Not a member yet? Click here to join.
Our son kept a SALAMANDER that he found under the woodpile! That was a strange pet!
My granddaughter hatched some triops (great prehistoric three eyed swimmers) that grew to nearly an inch long while feasting on hamburger
My son always pretended he had a pet sister (he’s an only child….hee hee)
My son has a fire belly newt, snails, an albino frog, and sharks in his fish tank. We now have one aged cat, and two energetic beagles. We loved our Japanese fighting fish. I used to have turtles and wished he could have had the pleasure too.
Well, we are a pet loving family and we currently have: 3 dogs, 1 cat, 2 snakes, 2 birds, and 3 fish tanks. My 4 yr olds favourite is one of the birds, a Kakariki named Flutter. He loves to share this snacks with Flutter. As soon as Flutter see that my son has something he likes to eat he jumps off his cage and comes hopping across the floor!
My daughter had a pet snail for about an hour, until my husband stepped on it … 🙁
We have a cat (who is a bit strange) but my son has dreams of lots of animals who are his comrades throughout his dreams. This week it was a monkey who helped him along the way.
My girls love snakes and spiders and ask repeatedly for them as pets. No way will THAT happen 🙂
A garden snake
When asked in the morning what my daughter dreamed about she always replied “a rooster”. She was about 2 and said this for at least a year. We tease her now (she’s 7) how she dreamed of having a rooster every night when she was little.
two hermit crabs
my little one has a pet bunny, puppy and carebear – all plushies ofcourse LOL
He loves zebras:)
An iguana! It grew so big, I was scared to open the door to feed it!! So I just stopped feeding it! JUST KIDDING OF COURSE!! ;D
I am allergic to everything so as a kid we tried them all:
Birds Penny and Pepper
Dog for 3 days Pumpkin a peakiness
A cat called Crazy Mary because she would attack you in your sleep, bite your toes and claw and cry at the door if you locked her out. We gave her to the neighbour who was so afraid of her she sat up all night until her husband got home.
A turtle named Elizabeth who the store said she was “stretching” when I found her arms, legs and head hanging WAY out of her shell. NOPE! That’s how they die!
I also had a baby Chick named Ity (cause we didn’t know if it was a boy or girl) Ity came when you called it and slept in my shoes.
My son once had a turtle as a pet! His name was Mikey! He was cute when he was little but became hissy when he got bigger.
Well I am not sure if it is super strange or not – my daughter LOVES pigs, has since she was two years old, and she is six now! She would love a pet pig, any kind of pig, pot bellied, regular, tea cup any ol’ pig will do LOL. I on the other hand am not so inclined to share my living space with a pig, we have already given up all pork products in the house because of her – she would tell us that the pig did not want to be eaten (smart girl!)
My daughter didn’t have any weird pets although we have a cat and her name is Audrey Hepburn! My daughter named her after her favorite person. My daughter’s first word was cat! Not Mummy but cat 🙂 Everything furry with 4 legs was a cat, even dogs and horses 🙂
my son has been wanting a rat and a monkey and i say no to both
No weird pets 🙂 Other then when they tried to keep a turtle as pet — they found it when we were camping. It was crossing the road!
My daughter believes that she is a dinosaur and has a room full of assorted dinosaurs and reptiles to entertain her 🙂
a dinosaur
My daughter has an imagined she has a black cat. No ordinary black cat, one that is scarred of everything. Everything includes the cats own shadow, and her cats name is Scaredy Cat.
They brought home those baby crabs from the beach. They lasted about a day and then died.
My children have two lovely ferrets. The boy ferret is completely white with red eyes and is as gentle as can be. The other ferret, a girl, looks like a little racoon and is one frisky, loveable pet. Both are really gentle and and the kids really love to play with them.
My grandson wants a pet “penguin”. We read a book on penguins and he was so fascinated on the picture of the pooping penguin.
Not strange I guess but my son bought a mouse one time and I was not thrilled but did end up liking it.
My kids have a community aquarium with a Scissortail who likes to swim backwards more often than forwards!
My little one is too young at 11 weeks to have had her own pet (besides the household dog and fish) but I had pet mice and rats as I grew up and they were great pets – she may get those when she’s a bit older!
When my son was a bit younger (2 and 3), he would come up with a different imaginary pet almost weekly! But no matter how many eyes, tentacles, or webbed feet it had, its name was always “Rock-A-Bye”… :o)
My daughter had a cow for a pet named “Pickle”.
My son has “bird friends” that tell him stuff. Everytime he sees a bird it is automatically his bird friend that tells him he should have ice cream or a new lego. I sometimes I wish I had a bird friend.
pet dinosaur that we can keep in the driveway!
My son has always dreamed of having a monkey as a pet. However since that is not possible we take him to the Toronto Zoo a lot and pretend those are his pets :P.
It makes him happy.
He also loves his stuffed monkey animal. He won’t sleep without him.
My son loves dragons, stuffed, toys and movies.
My son has a stuffed Hippo that he loves. That would be his favorite by far.
Our neighbours children have collectively: a bearded dragon, corn snake, hedgehog, two cats and two dogs – who needs to go to the zoo. We got to look after them the easter weekend, and it made my girls weekend!
it’s always monkeys – they vary on type and name.
My daughter had a snail that should found outside. In fact she didn’t know it until later, she had two! One of them had been buried in the dirt she scooped up when she got the first one.
My son found this weird looking thing outside ,which we put into a jar & watched for a few days. It turned out on the third day it opened up & out popped a huge moth.
Very exciting!!!
My son had an Iguana I find them to be strange animals he had it at his baba’s house he loved that reptile yuck!
My sons’s imaginary pet is Yoshi from SuperMario Brothers, I guess he is sick of the 2 cats we have. We also had a beta fish which he called “poom poms”, don’t ask.
Ha! Reminds me of Oscar the Grouch and his pet worm, Slimy!
I love that you let him keep a worm inside all winter.
And a little surprised that it lived, too. Amazing.
My son desperately wants a monkey
So apparently my daughter wanted a dog, but I didn’t clue in, so she took to walking a stuffy that didn’t look very much like a dog down the street on a string.
colossal squid
spynaert@hotmail.com
I could not recall anything that my son had previously said so I asked him…he said “A Jaguar…no, that would be too scary…I don’t want a pet”.
My son Has a pet Worm that he calls slippy. I told him he will have to let slippy out to meet his family this spring and he is not too pleased
My 2-yr old’s first pet was a Beta fish. Right away she named him “2bucks”…..I’m not sure where she got that from…..he didn’t cost $2. But that was his name and we’re sticking to it 🙂
“I like fishes and kitties but I don’t like dogs! But I’m getting used to dogs.” was the answer I received from my almost 4yr old,
My two year old really loves his “jumpy” squirel that lives in our shed. Although it did freak the crap out of hubby the other day when he went to fetch the lawn mower!
Right now my son would probably love to have a kangaroo….he loves them!
A large moth for a short while !
I have no children but as a youngster I always wanted a cheetah.
My daughter wanted a pet penguin.
a miniature ostrich… my 4 year old daughter’s response to being told that an ostrich is simply too large to keep as a pet.
How does a tooth-stealing pirate snake sound? He *sounds* evil but he’s really a good guy – very friendly and handy to have around.
We had a cat (not very strange at all) however my daughter has imagined she has a pet dragon on many occasions in her story telling!
My daughter loves Zebras. Her room is all zebra print as well as most of the clothes. She also wanted to ask Santa for one for Christmas.
The strangest has been a giraffe