Title: Wanted: The Perfect Pet
Author: Fiona Roberton
Illustrated by: Fiona Roberton
Publisher: Penguin Publishing / Viking
ISBN: 9780670073566
Teachers Notes: Teaching Suggestions for Wanted: The Perfect Pet
Themes: Friendship, pets, love, gifts, helping others, meeting new people, loving one’s self, pretending to be something that you’re not, loneliness, recognising the special things in others.
Once upon a time, there lived a boy called Henry.
What Henry wanted more than anything in the whole wide world . . .
MORE than chips . . .
MORE than a cowboy costume . . .
MORE than an all-expenses-paid trip to the moon . . .
was a DOG.
One really has to wonder how one young boy manages to convince his parents to allow him to have 27 different varieties of frogs, and then after that also allow him to advertise for a dog…
This charming and sweet story created by Fiona introduces us to a young boy named Henry who wants a dog more than anything else in the world, and who goes to extraordinary lengths to get one, dogs, unlike frogs have personality and he believes that this makes them the most perfect pet in the world (I happen to agree with him here). Apparently dogs can also read the newspapers because Henry decides to advertise in one to help him on his search for the perfect pet…
And he sits and waits…
At the same time a duck (without a name) live a lonely life on the top of a mountaintop, no one ever visits him, or emails or takes him out or sends him emails, and playing ping pong alone must really suck… And it’s this lonely duck that decides to disguise himself as a dog and respond to Henry’s advertisement.
Henry’s excitement at having a dog appear at his doorstep is immense, and straight away they start to learn new tricks and play new games… but it soon becomes obvious that there’s something not-quite-right with this dog…
What follows is an adorable example of friendship and hope.
Simply and illustrated you’ll fallen love with the two adorable characters (especially the duck) as they traverse the tricky and fun adventure of developing new friendships.
[rating:4]