My Pet Kitten

Sylvia Pantaleo is an associate professor of education, specializing in
children’s literature, at the University of Victoria. She is the
co-author of Learning with Literature in the Canadian Elementary
Classroom.

These two selections are similar to the keepsake baby books that parents
update as their children grow from newborns to toddlers. Some of the
text is written from the pets’ perspectives and some of it is factual
information. Each book contains similar information with respect to the
characteristics of a healthy pet, preparations for the new pet’s
arrival, the pet’s first day in a new home, pet care and grooming, a
typical day in the life of a puppy or kitten, and the symptoms of an ill
pet. Other topics include how pets communicate, ideas for playing and
travelling with pets, and training guidelines. The books have pages
called Puppy Notebook or Kitten Notebook for the owners of the new pets
to fill in. Although several sections seem to encourage observation
skills, some of the questions are trivial. Several scrapbook-like pages
are designed for pet owners to paste photographs of their pets and write
comments. The content and format of these books makes them suited for
personal collections rather than for school or public libraries. Not
recommended.