Cravin' a Kraken? Ginny Goblin Cannot Have A Monster for A Pet by David Goodner

Ginny Goblin wants a goat. Several goats, actually.

Her parents are not pleased.

Goats are kind of stinky, and it's a lot of work to take care of them.

Maybe if we can help Ginny Goblin find a pet, she'll stop trying to herd goats through the house.

Ginny's on it in a nano-second, with a bear collar, a huge net, and, uh, an armored tank? Not exactly what her parents have in mind.

Maybe a trip to the beach will inspire her to adopt a teeny-tiny tropical fish or may hap a lovable and low-maintenance hermit crab?

But no. Ginny goes overboard for an aquatic pet. She commandeers a mini-sub on a mission to capture the dreaded tentacled Kraken.

No way, Ginny! Perhaps in those daisy-covered hills she'll fall for a furry little bunny?

Hey! Wait! Ginny! Don't go down in that dank, dark cave and wake up a dragon!

Dragons eat cows in a single bite. Dragons are even crankier than krakens!

Her parents drag Ginny out of the cave just in time to avoid being barbequed by dragon breath and take her into the woods, hoping that she'll become enamored of a small-ish bird. But Ginny gets busy building a trap.

She should not catch a basilisk in her trap.

Basilisks turn everything they look at into stone, and they won't use the litter box.

What's with this penchant for mythical beasts? But now Ginny boards a rocket ship to adopt a space alien! Better abort that mission!

But wait! what's that she's cuddling in her arms? A baby goat? Whew!

Goats don't wrap people in tentacles, or fry the neighbors with fiery breath, or even turn them into marble monuments!

Goats even eat all the weeds in the yard.

A baby goat is not a monster.

Now if they can just keep Ginny Goblin from taking her goat to bed, in David Goodner's tale of a critter-loving tot, Ginny Goblin Cannot Have a Monster for a Pet (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). Picking a (suitable) pet is an important part of childhood, and Ginny's penchant for unsuitable pets makes for a jolly "can I keep him" story for preschoolers and especially for savvy primary graders whose mania for monsters extends to the folkloric.

In the artwork of illustrator Louis Thomas, Ginnie Goblin is a cutie, with her greenish skin and little red overalls, endearing in her enthusiasm for exotic creatures. Goodner's and Thomas's first book together is Ginny Goblin Is Not Allowed to Open This Box. (see my 2018 review here)