This anthology contains 14 poems that are by turns funny, tender, poignant, protective, and blissful. Through them all runs a thread of gratitude for the treasured role animal companions play in our lives.
Each poem is devoted to a particular creature: a kitten, a puppy, a goldfish, a parakeet, a hamster, a lop-eared rabbit, and others you might expect to find in many children's homes. The poems have a remarkable consistency of tone — permeated with a refreshing innocence — even though they're each by a different poet.
Eric Ode's "A Prayer for My Gerbil," for instance, begins and ends with the endearing line, "Watch over every tiny part." (Anyone who's ever had a gerbil knows how delicate they feel in your hand, in spite of being vivacious.) In "Dreaming of Savannah," Kristine O'Connell George conveys yearning, immediacy, and adventure, with lines like:
"I dream of you late every night —
glints of moonlight tangle your mane.
We race across the star-strewn plain."
Not all the poems involve what we traditionally called "pets". In "Box Turtle," by B. J. Lee, a child rights a turtle who had been stuck upside down, enjoys watching its colorful armored plates, “learn[s] this map by heart", and then sets the creature free.
Throughout the book, Lita Judge's illustrations bring so much satisfaction that we trust children will remember them even when they're grown. One shows a child's feet contentedly snuggled into a puppy's fur. Another illustration shows a child gracefully dancing alongside her gliding goldfish; both look supremely happy. The look of hesitant skepticism on a boy's face when his friend's snake draws close to him is priceless.
This volume for four-to-eight-year-old readers closes with poems for an old calico cat and an old dog. Writing of wondrous times together with the dog, editor and poet Lee Bennett Hopkins concludes:
"I'll forever
recall each and every
day
I had with you.
"I know you'll forever
remember, too."
The book has its own memorable quality and is likely to be loved by many generations.
