The Best Book Recently

The Best Pet of All is one of the best children's books we've had in a LONG time from the library. Yes, I say this a lot though...

David LaRochelle wrote the cutest book. And the illustrations by Hanako Wakiyama are perfect. They make the story to me. This author/illustrator combo seems to be a match made in heaven.

Let me start off by saying this book caught my attention because the cover art looks like a book from the 1950s/1960s - which I typically love. Some of my favorites, which we own are the Little Golden Books from that era, The Daddy Book, the Dorrie books, etc - where the illustrations are clean, innocent and reflect the period in the environments of the book (toys, hairdos, clothing, buildings, etc). You can imagine my surprise seeing it was penned in 2009. I love that the little boy in the book has very vintage looking toys, the mom is wearing 60s style clothes, and the house they live in is decorated like something I might love to live in. I believe it's got to be set in that era.

The story however, is the best part. A little boy asks his mother over multiple days if he can have a dog, which she refuses - so he asks for a dragon. She says if he can find one, he can keep it. And of course he does - at a drugstore. Who he gets to come home because "dragons love toys".
The dragon is a terrible houseguest and pet. He doesn't pick up, dances all night (to records no less), eats in the tub, etc.

The little boy tells his mother it's too bad they don't have a dog because dragons are scared of dogs...so the mother caves. They put a sign in there window for a dog wanted. My favorite two pages state "A few minutes later there was a knock at the door" and then "It was a dog". The sentences and illustrations in these few pages are adorable and hilarious, so simple and perfect in the story. The dragon leaves and the mother is happy. The boy is happy because "a dog is the best pet of all". And you see the boy and the dragon giving each other a sly thumbs-up when the mother is warming up to the dog on one of the last pages.

This book is perfect. It's well-written. It's got short, simple sentence pages making it ideal for my little boy to sit and listen to. And it's a feel-good book for all.

As much as I get flustered with my boy and his dog...I realize that there's a bond there. They have a love for each other that I'm not sure any dragon would ever replace. And this book WILL join our library at home.

Mostly because it's that darn cute.