Third Grade Pet By Judy Cox

Third Grade Pet by Judy Cox would be considered fiction.  This could also be realistic fiction because the story takes place in modern times and could actually happen in real life.  The main character of this story is Rosemary.  Rosemary is a kind girl that enjoys school, family and friends.  In the story Rosemary finds out that her teacher, Mr. Wilder has enough money in the class budget to get a classroom pet.  Rosemary hopes for the fish but the final decision ends up being a rat.  Rosemary is disgusted and scared because she does not like rats.  Her family is not animal friendly, especially her mom. Rosemary ends up having to be the first one to take care of the new class pet with the classroom bully, Brian.  Rosemary decides to let her guard down and becomes a huge fan of the rat.  So much that she doesn't want to leave the rat at school in fear that her bully classmate Brian will take it home and torture the rat.  Rosemary decides to steal the rat from the class in order to protect it.  Because of this, Rosemary gets into a bunch of predicaments through out the story.  My favorite is when she takes the rat to the dentist with her and the rat gets out of her book bag.  I think it is something that the children can relate to.  Rosemary quickly learns that her house is no place for a rat and has to sneak the rat back into her classroom.  She realizes that things aren't always what they seem to be and that you should never just judge a book by its cover.  She also learns that just because one person may not like something does not mean that the next person won't.  She thought because her mom hates animals she would too.  I would use this book to teach the students to be open-minded. Sometimes children decide to dislike things because they don't know enough about the topics or ideas.  I think that this would go into a bin under fiction or I could also do a life lessons bin.  It would be books that teach the students life long lessons.

Note:  This was a free choice book as well as a chapter book