Books like Barkis
By Clare Turlay Newberry
For families who know exactly what it's like to referee a squabble between two beloved pets, this one will feel familiar. Gentle, domestic, quietly tender.
A quiet polar bear just wants to read, write, and think in peace, but a chatty goose keeps talking and talking beside him — can two such different creatures really be friends?
A homeless dog living in a box in an alley writes letter after letter to every house on Butternut Street, pleading his case for a forever home.
A young tiger can't read, write, draw, or speak, and his worried father watches for progress while his mother insists he just needs time to bloom in his own way.
A picnic goes sideways when rain and stormy winds send an umbrella (and Mouse!) flying into a tree — one friend calls it good news, the other bad, all the way through.
A fish and his best friend, a tadpole, grow up together in a pond until the tadpole becomes a frog and hops off to explore dry land, leaving the fish desperate to follow.
A zookeeper spends every day visiting his animal friends — racing the tortoise, sitting with the shy penguin, reading to the owl — until he wakes up too sick to come, and they decide to visit him instead.
A gorilla with nearly everything he could want is still missing one thing — a friend — so his keepers try pairing him with a tiny kitten to see what happens.
Two identical-looking twin sisters share the same eyes, cheeks, and smiles, but as they make dumplings, get haircuts, and practice magic tricks, their differences keep showing through.
A girl stuck wearing her brother's old winter boots feels envy and sting when her friend teases her about them — until one word starts to mend their friendship.
A gallery of animal families — ducks, pandas, hippos, tigers, and more — appears in framed portraits, each one showing a different way to be a family, from two moms to a kid with just a pet plant.
On the Isle of Struay, a girl's two grandmothers couldn't be more different — one plain and island-tough, one glamorous and mainland-chic — until a prize sheep and a secret beauty formula bring them together.
