No plain pets - Hardcover

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Kindergarten-Grade 3-- An imaginative story with nice crisp rhymes is almost devoured by Drescher's mildly macabre and very busy illustrations. A young, overall-clad child asks for a pet, specifically stating that it not be ``plain.'' Delightful possibilities include a gorilla, penguins, a camel, an electric eel, a hippopotamus, etc., until the child declares, ``The main thing/ Isn't really what kind . . ./The main thing's I'll love him,/ As long as he's mine!'' The sinister qualities that work so well in Simon's Book (Lothrop, 1983) seem a little heavy-handed here. However, each and every pet portrayed is far from plain and colors splash across the pages. The poem works well as a read-aloud but the illustrations need more time to be fully appreciated. Care has been taken to lighten the background where the text is placed but practice before a story-time performance is recommended. A romp through what-ifs with a wealth of visual stimuli. --Jody McCoy, Casady School, Oklahoma City
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A boy who has been promised a pet wants something unusual- -like ``A big, black gorilla? He wouldn't be rude--except, sometimes, when eating his food.'' As the mildly imaginative suggestions proceed, Drescher's wildly surreal illustrations take flight with mischievous creatures peering from windows (and the mouths of other creatures), hair typically on end, and surfaces patterned or scribbled with childlike graffiti (including the text). Meanwhile, the artist creates a gallery of amusingly zany figures and skillfully deploys his gorgeous colors. Bizarre but witty. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.