I recently attended the Great Books Consortium, in which Pete & Pickles by Berkeley Breathed (creator of the comic strip Opus) was chosen by a committee of children’s librarians from across the state of Maryland, as the best picture book of the past year. It’s certainly an interesting story, about a pig named Pete, who lives a quiet and simple existence, until he runs into Pickles, a runaway circus elephant. At first Pete is alarmed by the changes Pickles brings to his life, but soon finds himself unable to live without the unpredictable pacidurm. The book deals indirectly with the loss of a loved one, so it may not be suited to especially sensitive children.
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