A PROMISE IS A PROMISE

In this uninspired take on a tired premise, young George wangles permission from his parents for a pet, then brings home a series of unsuitable ones. Ordered to take back the huge dog, the breeding pair of mice and the shark, George extracts a promise that he can have a bird—and so he gets a big, bright red, loudly abusive parrot. Spoiled and sullen, George makes an unappealing protagonist, his clueless dad and wimpy, hand-wringing mother show not a speck of intelligence and the sketchy, rumpled figures in Auth’s illustrations supply neither character nor much humor. There is no reason to prefer this over (to name a few examples) Dan Yaccarino’s An Octopus Followed Me Home (1997), Lauren Child’s I Want a Pet (1999) or Karen Kaufman Orloff’s I Wanna Iguana (2004), illustrated by David Catrow. (Picture book. 6-8)