My Pet Cloud

by Amanda Rawson Hill, Laia Arriols (Illustrator)

Overview

Max wants a pet, and a pet cloud seems way better than a cat, dog, or fish. A cloud is clean, quiet, and doesn’t shed. How hard could it be to take care of a puffy cloud? Author Amanda Rawson Hill subtly blends lessons on responsibility, problem solving, and friendship with lots of humor for a unique approach to the typical pet story. The added science element provides the perfect combination of learning and fun in a picture book illustrated by Laia Arriols.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684464258
Publisher:	Capstone
Publication date:	02/01/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	622,340
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD610L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Amanda Rawson Hill grew up in Wyoming, with a library right out her back gate. She is the author of the picture book, You'll Find Me, and the middle grade novel, The Three Rules of Everyday Magic. Today she lives in California with her husband, four kids, three Guinea pigs, a lazy bulldog and a grumpy cat.

Interviews

Combines social emotional learning and science;

Editorial Reviews

This book uses comic illogic to show how difficult, but rewarding, getting and caring for a pet can be. In this case, the pet is a rescue cloud. Young Max has a mother who is absolutely opposed to his having a pet on account of noise, mess, and animal hair. In a delightful ludicrous leap, Max takes home a small, cheerful-looking cumulus cloud he finds wandering close to the ground, thinking he’s found a completely noise-, mess-, and hair-free pet. But Fluffy has his own problems: he precipitates on the rug and runs away at the slightest puff of wind. When a big storm carries Fluffy away, Max and mom embark on a cross-country trek to find him, and incredibly, Fluffy blows in months later during Max’s baseball game. The illustrations match the text's whimsy, with the boy’s semicircles of hair repeated in the cloud and landscape. The “Rescue Clouds Ready for Adoption” section at book’s end is a fun way to inform readers about other types of clouds.

Booklist - Connie Fletcher

2021-12-16
A young boy is on cloud nine when he finds the perfect pet, but he is quickly brought down to earth.

Max longs for a pet, but his single mom is “allergic to mess, noise, and animal hair.” So, it’s a great stroke of luck when he finds a little “lost cloud” who is clean, quiet, and doesn’t molt. He immediately adopts it and names it Fluffy. The cloud is sweet and great fun, but caring for him turns out to be “a natural disaster.” Fluffy is frequently swept away by the wind, often precipitates indoors without warning, and even starts a fire when he unwittingly generates lightning. “I just don’t think clouds make good pets,” Mom concludes, and Max undertakes to prove otherwise. He trains Fluffy to water the garden flowers, to scare away pesky critters by thundering loudly, and more. Things are looking up until a thunderstorm blows Fluffy far away. A fruitless search leaves Max resigned to never seeing his cumulus companion again. Luckily, there is always sunshine after a storm, and the two pals’ friendship is not over yet. This fantastical take on the child-pet bond is sweet, with the potential to be clever; alas, the unremarkable writing doesn’t quite rise to the occasion. The digital illustrations are serviceable but not stellar. One perk is a page showing different cloud types. Max and Mom have curly hair and tan skin. One scene, set in a park, includes diverse representation.

Like the titular pet—lightweight but cute. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews