Prudence Wants a Pet

Cathleen Daly (author)

Stephen Michael King (illustrator)

Scholastic Press, Australia: September 2011

ISBN: 9781741699654

Genres: animals, picture book

Prudence really wants a pet but her parents are full of reasons why that's not a good idea. Prudence finds some creative alternatives – a branch, a twig, a shoe, a car tyre – but somehow they don't quite fill the hole in her heart. After all, a shoe can't lick your face or greet you when you come home from school. Will Prudence ever be allowed to have a pet?

Stephen Michael King's illustrations take Cathleen Daly's endearing story well beyond the text, capturing both Prudence's persistence and her essential loneliness. Prudence's parents are shown from a child's perspective – tall, authoritative figures, cut off at the shoulders by the top of the page and therefore faceless. By doing this King also suggests that Prudence's parents rarely look at things from their daughter's point of view – their faces never appear in her world, only their feet, legs, hands, the bottom half of their bodies and part of their torsos.

Youngsters will laugh at Prudence's attempts to find a pet acceptable to her parents but adults may feel a little uncomfortable when reminded how easily they forget the intensity of childhood desires.