Books like Crictor
By Tomi Ungerer
For the kid who begs for a pet snake, Crictor makes room for a friendship nobody in the village expects to matter so much. Gentle, quirky, warmhearted, with a dash of old-fashioned French village charm.
A lonely woman welcomes a traveling salesman's pets into her home one by one, but draws the line firmly at one thing: no elephants, thank you very much.
A beloved dinosaur bakes cookies, helps old ladies cross the street, and plays with kids in town — while one boy, Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie, insists she's scientifically extinct and shouldn't exist at all.
A small boy is invited to tea at the palace and always asks the same question — may he bring a friend? — and each time, a surprising animal guest shows up beautifully behaved.
A lion wanders into the library one day, and since there aren't any rules against lions, he stays — quiet-footed, story-hour pillow, rule-follower — until an emergency forces him to break the one rule that matters.
A lonely old man sets out to find one pretty cat but can't choose among the millions, billions, and trillions he finds on a hillside — so he brings them all home.
A girl named Emily writes to her teacher, Mr. Blueberry, insisting a blue whale is living in her pond, and the two trade letters all summer as he tries to set her straight.
A mother cat leads her two kittens, Fluffy and Skinny, through washing, wall-walking, and claw-sharpening — while a third kitten, Boris, just naps through it all.
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.
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.
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 young girl finds a box of yarn that never runs out and knits sweaters for everyone and everything in her gray town — until a greedy archduke decides he wants the box for himself.
Scarred from tending the fire, a girl and her two beautiful but cruel sisters all try to win the hand of a rich, powerful Invisible Being — but only his sister's watchful gaze can tell who has truly seen him.
