Books like April's Kittens
By Clare Turlay Newberry
April's Kittens gets the math of pet ownership exactly right: one cat, three kittens, and a father who says they can't keep them all. Your kid will lean in hard over which one April picks to save. Here are more books for the kid who takes that kind of decision very seriously.
A gray cat named Charlie appears from the woods and settles into Elizabeth's and Sarah's nights, but disappears every day until a storm keeps him away and reveals his other home.
Same true-life warmth about a cat finding her place in a house, but The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot adds a whole Christmas surprise on top.
April's family stretches a little to make room for kittens. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell is about a family forming in the first place, penguin style.
Skip the dilemma of who gets to stay and go straight to the comfort part with Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too? by Eric Carle, one calm mother-and-baby pair after another.
A little girl flies with her family all the way to Holland to visit her grandparents, but somewhere along the journey, her beloved Knuffle Bunny goes missing again.
April had to decide who belongs in her family. Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen flips it, a mother deciding an odd egg belongs in hers.
If your kid liked measuring April's love for each kitten, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney turns that same measuring into a whole bedtime game.
Pretzel by Margret Rey has the same gentle pride in April's Kittens, just aimed at a dog too long for the neighbors to ignore.
A girl mails away twenty-five cents for a unicorn and waits weeks for him to arrive — but when Sparkle shows up smelly, fleabitten, and nothing like she imagined, she has to decide whether to love the unicorn she actually got.
Less about a hard choice, more about why the choosing happens at all. All the Things I Love About You by LeUyen Pham just sits in the love part.
April worries over which kitten to part with. The Teddy Bear by David McPhail sits with that same ache, only the thing lost is a bear.
A lonely, unsociable man receives a mysterious valentine with no name attached — and the simple idea that somebody loves him transforms how he moves through his whole neighborhood.
