In a very simple rhyming story in the Step into Reading series, a mouse tells a small girl in a pet store why mice make the best pets compared with all the other popular animals: Boas squeeze and lizards shed, but Mice are gentle. / Mice are sweet. / Mice have tiny hands / and feet. The colorful pictures show that all the other pets do very well for themselves, even when the mouse tries to insult them. The girl grins as the puppies lick her face, but in the end the mouse fits just nicely in her pocket. With its perky voice and cuddly subject, this will appeal to first readers, as will the clear, colorful paperback design. (Reviewed October 1, 1999)

A mouse tries to convince a pet store customer that mice make the best pets: "Boas squeeze. / Lizards shed. / Rabbits hide / beneath the bed." The illustrations are greeting-card sweet but contain humorous details--the jaunty narrator plugs his nose near a litter box--and the large typeface and short, rhyming sentences make the light story appropriate for beginning readers.