Rodents with charm

Many children want a pet. But what pet to choose for your family?

The people who live down the street from us struggled with that question. One child wanted a dog (no fenced yard), another wanted a cat (nope, Mom’s allergic), and another wanted a rat (that idea was unanimously squashed).

Then someone came up with the perfect pet, one that’s mostly quiet, small, doesn’t require much space, and can be very independent — a guinea pig!

The kids now take turns feeding and caring for their new pet pig (guinea, that is) named Tiger. But Tiger isn’t like the guinea pigs in Susan Roth’s book, Great Big Guinea Pigs (opens in a new window)(Bloomsbury), in which a mama guinea pig shares a bedtime story with her son about their giant ancestors. In this book, not only do guinea pigs the size of buffalo (opens in a new window)make a good story, but there’s fossil evidence that they really did exist!

I’ll ask the kids down the street to compare their guinea pig experiences to those in Oh, Theodore: Guinea Pig Poems (opens in a new window) by Susan Katz (Clarion). This handsomely illustrated book captures one child’s experience to a tee. Look for this book when it comes out in the fall.

Guinea pigs. Rodents with appeal — at least in books!