ALA Booklist
(Wed May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)
In this zany story, a school is overrun with a wide variety of wild pets, but who sent the letter en on the first page ying that, for just one day, it's OK for students to bring their pets to school? Cats, dogs, a frog, a horse, a snake, a porcupine, parrot, pig, rabbit, goat, goldfish, and more unload from the school bus (the bus driver's stunned look says it all) into the schoolyard and the school. They go on to accompany their children from morning song to storytime to art class to snack time, creating chaos, messes, and noise wherever they go. The sunny illustrations and rhyming text, along with the changes of scene throughout the school day, will propel readers through the book. The secret plot of letting pets into school is uncovered as we see the shadows of animal ears hovering over the school's computer, where another letter is being typed. Funny and imaginative from start to finish.
Kirkus Reviews
Devious pets change the school rule that bans them and experience a day of chaos and animal love.The opening spread shows a child holding a letter stating pets will be welcome at school on Friday in one hand, a hedgehog in the other. Turn the page, and every student is arriving with an animal in tow (what about those without pets?). After each class with the animals, the teachers declare the rule change a disaster. Indeed, chaos reigns in the music room, the library, and the art studio. The principal, a brown-skinned woman with short, dark hair, agrees—she didn't do it. But then, who did? "Meeoowww." A neatly printed letter reads: "We do not like your âNo Pets' rule. / We miss our kids when they're at school." The note is signed "Pets." The hopeful, pleading faces of the kids win the day—as long as the pets clean up their messes and behave—and the day is a success. But that doesn't mean the pets' plan to declare that every day be pet day will fly! Ashman's verses are bouncy, and Kaufman's brightly colored artwork will have readers poring over the details in her busy scenes and laughing at all the mischief. The people and their pets are diverse, especially the latter, which include an entire ant farm pulled in a red wagon, a hamster in a ball, a large snake, and a horse.This will certainly have readers yearning for pet days at their own schools. (Picture book. 4-8)