The Teacher’s Pet – Book Review by Shelly

The Teacher’s Pet
Written by: Anica Mrose Rissi
Illustrated by: Zachariah Ohora

Mr. Stricter’s elementary school class is hatching a science project! Each kid gets to watch their own tadpole grow, but the class only gets to keep one, so they choose to keep Bruno. But this is no ordinary tadpole! Mr. Stricter just loves his pet and ends up needing help from his students deciding on what to do with this extraordinary and troublesome pet in this story by Anica Mrose Rissi.

What initially drew me to this story were the “retro-esque” illustrations on the cover. I just love the simplicity and the colors that Ohora chose. It is a quick-read story that kept my four-year-old daughter engaged the whole time. This book is perfect for Pre-K/elementary school-aged kids.  I especially liked how the whole class meets together for an “official” meeting to decide how to help their teacher. Team Work really is the Dream Work and they come up with an excellent solution!

Daynah’s Comments:  Daynah also read this book with her daughter.  Here are her thoughts:

I read “Teacher’s Pet” to my five year old daughter a few times and she loved the story. She thinks the teacher is very silly for keeping such a larger pet around. The illustrations are amusing as we laughed through each page.

I love the role reversal in the story where the students are the responsible ones and the teacher, Mr. Strictler keeps thinking with his heart and not his mind. It’s a cute story about loving something and learning to let it go.