The Class Pet from the Black Lagoon

Black Lagoon #11

by Mike Thaler, Jared D. Lee (Illustrator)

Another super story from Mike Thaler and Jared Lee. This duo has almost reached the 5 million mark in terms of total books sold in this series.

Mrs. Green tells the class that they're going to have a class pet. She's bringing it in from home. Its name is Dina.

Will it have fangs, horns, or headlights? Will it be mild or wild? Who knows what kind of pet Mrs. Green will bring in?
But when the class sees that Mrs. Green has brought in a hamster, they all really love the cute furry critter.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Mystery, 1st Grade, School

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Mike Thaler, born in Los Angeles, started his professional career drawing cartoons for adults. A children's book editor saw one of his cartoon stories in a national magazine and encouraged Mike to try writing for children. His first attempt met with success, and "The Magic Boy" was published in 1961.

Mike has produced over 220 published books and is known as “America’s Riddle King.” He has also been called “The Court Jester of Children’s Literature.”

Mike Thaler lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Patty. He gladly welcomes all invitations to do church and school programs, and other book events.

Mike travels each year throughout the world helping children and teachers create their own stories, riddles, and books. He writes and teaches with creativity, inspiring his audiences with a love of language.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[melhara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mrs. Green is bringing in a class pet, but no one knows what kind of pet she has. The children start wondering what kind of animal (or creature) it could be - "Will it wiggle? Will it walk? Will it growl? Will it talk?"

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Part of a personal challenge to read all of my boyfriend's and his sister's childhood books before we donate and give them away.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first in the series that I purchased for Owen. He had been raving about this book series for months, his friends at school love it and he loves the pictures. What I have enjoyed about this book is how easy it is to read together. I usually read the "story" part and he reads what all the captions are in the pictures. We are interacting about this story, and really talking. It has made reading a more interactive experience, not passive!

[Alex Bonnet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story that highlights the wild imagination of young children. I loved the illustrations but it definitely didn't have a lot to it to make it super special. It did however make me want to have my son find more of these at his school library~

[Jc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious. It is so much fun reading these Black Lagoon stories to the kids.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kindergartener is so fascinated with this series. In particular, he’s asked me to read this book to him the last 3 nights.

[♥♣Mary♦♠ If She So Pleases · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good one time read.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, not as engaging as some others in the series, but cute.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

We had a pet hamster in my class.

[JoLyn Westphal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book for elementary school students

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun story in the Black Lagoon series. It's a little different from the other books in the series, because instead of an authority figure from the school, the creature from the black lagoon is the class pet. The narrative is entertaining and the illustrations are as creepy and funny as ever. We enjoyed reading this story together.

We've read many of the books in this series and our girls love them. When we finish, we will likely begin reading the Black Lagoon Adventures chapter book series.

[Angela Hutchinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in class.
In this story, Mrs. Green's class is getting a new class pet. The students begin to wonder what it is and if it will be scary or not. Once the teacher brings the pet in, they realize it is a harmless little hamster. This book is part of a the Black Lagoon Series and would be a good book to use for predicting what the students might think the new classroom animal could be.

[Molly Toomey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The teacher announces that there will be a new addition to the classroom: a class pet. One student imagines that scariest, creepiest pets that the teacher could possibly bring into the room. Once the student meets the pet, however, he realizes that there is nothing to fear. This book is great when talking about fear and imagination. There are also great illustrations within it.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're on a Black Lagoon kick in our house...they've all been requested from the library. In this title, Mrs. Green nervously awaits the arrival of her class that she's heard is REALLY weird. Funny and enjoyable for a variety of ages.

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't care for this type of books. There is enough scarey things in this world without adding to them. But I cannot judge how much our grandchildren like it, since I don't remember our grandson's talking about them or reading them to me. I am glad that what the teacher brought was not scarey.

[Tim Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

That hamster will make a great class pet. That is until the dirty rodent bites the crap out of a kid and gives them bubonic plague.

This would be good for a Halloween-related story time or a theme on pets, either will work.

[Jenn Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The teacher tells the class that she is going to bring a pet into the class. However, one kid assumes the worst. A funny story overall and the illustrations are definitely entertaining. I enjoyed it and my daughter did too. Would recommend.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy this author. His books are clever and interesting. I have observed that this book appeals to boys, although I think girls would like these books too.

[Gage · Rating 5 out of 5]

You should really try to draw the monsters.

[Corey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read it while subbing, not as cute or creative as the rest...seems after 11 books the Author probably was running out of idea's for what our young protagonist wild imagination could come up with.

[Dc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

[Emily Woodard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book but there wasn't any one thing I liked about it.

[Mercedes Ortiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super funny! I loved all the pet speculations -and wished I had one of those in my classroom back in kindergarten! It inspired me to come up with one of my own: a girly frog puppy.