Published by Tundra Books 

Summary: When the narrator of the story gets a pet hamster, she thinks it’s kind of boring—it only eats, sleeps, hides, and gets its shavings wet. Her imagination takes off as she starts to imagine the mythical creatures that might make really exciting pets.  The more she thinks about each one, though, the more she realizes it has a down side.  Unicorns are shy, a hippogriff could be disruptive at the dog park, a gryphon has to be flown every day without fail.  In the end, she concludes the hamster might not be so bad after all.  The final page clues the reader in that this may not be your ordinary hamster.  32 pages; ages 3-7.

Pros:  The rhyming text and colorful illustrations provide a fun introduction to a variety of mythical creatures.

Cons:  You might want to confirm the pronunciation of words like gryphon, kraken, and kirin before attempting this as a read-aloud.