Always Room for One More! Teacher's Pets

Dayle Ann Dodd's Teacher's Pets describes an idyllic classroom in which the perky young teacher Miss Fry urges all the kids to bring their pets for show-and-tell day on Monday. Week by week the kids bring in their animals, first a pet rooster named Red, then Vincent the tarantula, next Moe the cricket, and on to a goat named Gladys, a dachshund, a boa constrictor, a cat, mice, ducks, an iguana, a frog, a monkey, a turtle, and even an old kitchen sponge.

Gamely Miss Fry welcomes all the zoological visitors with a smile, but there's a problem. Nobody's family seems to be in any hurry for the pets to return home, and before long Miss Fry is feeding and tending to a classroom menagerie every day. Oh, the classroom is full of happy pet noises, and on Parents' Night, the animals are a hit with the visiting grownups, but on the last day of school, Miss Fry lowers the boom. "Have a nice summer...and don't forget to TAKE HOME YOUR PETS!"

As the dust settles over a post-party classroom, Miss Fry notices one small pet has been left behind--Moe the cricket. Happily, Moe is just what Miss Fry's garden has been needing, and she gladly takes him home to sing her to sleep each summer night.

Teacher's Pets is perfect to inspire students to draw or write about their own pets, for a first-year teacher, for a last-day-of-school story time, or for a special teacher that you remember for his or her amazing patience!