Can I Keep It, Please?

At the town pet parade, brown-skinned Evie, encountering many kinds of animals, decides that her fluffy gray cat Sasha is not “a cool pet.” Determined to find something more dazzling, Evie requests a chinchilla, hedgehog, and skunk, all of which are denied by her practical parents. Though a garter snake discovered in the backyard passes parental muster, “Slithers” resists domestication, offers no emotional reciprocity, and fails to become a celebrity among Evie’s peers. During show-and-tell, the child has an epiphany: “Maybe Slithers doesn’t want to be a pet.... Not like Sasha does,” Sullivan writes. After Evie releases Slithers back into the garden, the ever-devoted Sasha bears three kittens. Cheery digital cartooning by Gibson alternate domestic and school scenes, while light animalian anthropomorphism effectively conveys that different beings have different natures—and that the best pet is the one that chooses you. Secondary characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)