Breed-specific books & videos; how to choose the right dog for your lifestyle and family

Animal welfare, rescue, and adoption; legal issues

Dog training and psychology

Travel and play with your pet

Children's non-fiction about pets

Children's fiction about pets

Children's fiction - other good stuff

Adult books about pets and other animals

Death of a pet

Pet-themed items other than books and DVDs/videos

Penguins - yes, you read that correctly

Find the Perfect Holiday Gift at Amazon.com Gift Central

Other pet/animal books; general search

Other children's books we love:

Most of these involve animals but pets aren't central to the tale.
All of these have wonderful illustrations in addition to a story that we enjoy hearing over and over again.

• Angelina Ballerina's Colors, by Katharine Holabird, illustrated by Helen Craig.
  Board book for wee ones. Pictures from various Angelina books are used as examples of colors.
  Our little one dances around, chanting "Ballerina colors, ballerina colors!"
  Other Angelina Ballerina items - books, videos, DVDs, games, puzzles
• Pickle and the Ball, by Lynn Breeze.
  Board book for wee ones. A baby, Pickle, plays with his ball, accidentally squishing his teddy with it at one point. Out of print.
• Pickle and the Blanket, by Lynn Breeze.
  Board book for wee ones. A baby, Pickle, plays with his blanket. Out of print.
  Lynn Breeze wrote two other Pickle books, but we didn't like them nearly as much as these two.
• Good Night, Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann.
  Board book for wee ones to preschoolers. Almost no words, so smallest listeners will need some explanation. It's bedtime at the zoo, but the silly gorilla sneaks the key ring and lets the other animals out. They all follow zookeeper Joe home and try to go to sleep in his bedroom, but are caught. The zookeeper's wife returns them to the zoo for the night. Lots of nice details like the Ernie doll and the banana.
• Can You Hop?, by Lisa Lawston, illustrated by Ed Vere.
  Very short board book for wee ones. A frog tries to find an animal friend who can also hop. Simple, bold, happy illustrations. Expect toddlers to hop around while and/or after reading it.
• Can You Sing?, by Lisa Lawston, illustrated by Ed Vere.
  Very short board book for wee ones. Companion to the previous. A penguin wants a bedtime song and asks each animal for a sound. At the end, the penguin thanks everyone for their contributions to the song. Simple, bold, happy illustrations.
• Where Is Baby Natasha?, by Liza Alexander, illustrated by Maggie Swanson.
  Board book for wee ones to preschoolers. Naughty Muppet Natasha gets into mischief on each page. Encourage the child to find and point to her. Rhyming story ends with Natasha cuddling on mama's lap for a nap.
• Mama's Secret, by Maria Polushkin.
  For toddlers to kindergarten or so. On a quiet afternoon, Mama sneaks outside. Big sister Amy, Baby, and Kitty follow one by one to see what she's doing. They find her picking blueberries and try to watch, but she catches them peeking. They help her pick the berries, then go back inside and bake all sorts of wonderful blueberry dishes. Daddy arrives home with a chocolate cake; they have that for dessert instead. Sweet, straightforward, gentle, humorous illustrations and story. Few, simple words - most of the details are in the pictures.
• One Beautiful Baby, by Martine Oborne.
  Wee ones to preschoolers. Very simple, quiet counting book that shows some of the many sweet and silly things to love about a cute, sticky, typical baby. Puts everyone in a cuddly mood.
• Down by the Station, by Will Hillenbrand.
  Babies to kindergarten or so. "Down by the station, early in the morning..." song in book form. Illustrations show a train engineer picking baby animal passengers up from their parents and taking them to the children's zoo for the day. They get to their destination just in time for a busload of schoolchildren to play with them.
• Bumble Bee, by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Victoria Raymond.
  Board book for wee ones to preschoolers. Soothing, rhythmic lines follow a bumblebee around as it flies. Very interesting pictures - bee and settings were made from modeling clay, beads, and other materials and then photographed. A few interesting but oddly difficult words for the target audience - "timothy" (grass), for example, and "plunder" - but very engaging.
• Jamberry, by Bruce Degen.
  Board book for wee ones to about kindergarten. A boy goes out for a walk, meets up with a bear, and the two have adventures in the countryside. They feast on different types of berries and meet numerous singing, dancing, jazz-playing, berry-eating animals along the way. Very silly rhymes, but not at all cutesy. The illustration on each page gives a hint about content of the next page.
• Big Red Barn and
  Big Red Barn (El gran granero rojo) en espanol, by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Felicia Bond.
  Board book for wee ones to kindergarten. The barnyard animals play and settle down for the night while "the children are away." Wonderful, soothing rhymes make it a great bedtime story.
• Each Peach Pear Plum, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.
  Toddlers to kindergarten or so. The Ahlbergs have written everything from board books to books that contain letters to pull out and read. This special book is sequential, asking the child to find a semi-hidden fairy or folk tale character in the picture. Each picture contains a reference to the previous page. At the end, all the characters eat pie together under the trees. Some knowledge of "The Three Bears", "Jack and Jill", and the like is helpful so that Mom and Dad don't have to explain what to look for on each page.
• Little Nino's Pizzeria, by Karen Barbour.
  Early preschool to kindergarten. Little Tony helps his mom and dad (the Nino of the title) run the family pizzeria, which is a friendly gathering place that caters to everyone in their neighborhood. Families eat there; pizza is regularly given away to the needy. One day, a wealthy customer convinces the father open a higher-end pizza restaurant. Nino isn't allowed to help there; the father is overworked and overwhelmed by the bureaucracy; it's too ritzy a place for the locals. The family is upset all around. Happily, dad decides to return to the simplicity and direct control of his old pizzeria business. He now calls it "Little Tony's". Book's text is much simpler than this explanation. Colorful illustrations show a mostly-happy family with pet(s). Paperback.
• Max, written and illustrated by Bob Graham.
  Preschool to second grade or so. Max is a baby, the youngest in a family of superheroes. Yet he doesn't seem to have their powers. As he grows and goes to school, he finds that he is best at helping with little things. He's a "small hero," the kind we need more of in this world, to paraphrase the author.

More children's fiction about animals, though not necessarily about pets:

Other children's classic fiction: