My Pet Feet
Author: Josh Funk
Illustrator: Billy Yong
Anticipated Publication: August 23, 2022 by Simon & Schuster
Goodreads Summary: When the letter R suddenly vanishes, a whole town goes upside-down in this side-splitting picture book of alphabet chaos that’s Can I Be Your Dog? meets P Is for Pterodactyl.
A little girl wakes up one day to find that R, a vital piece of the alphabet, has vanished! Suddenly, she has pet feet instead of a ferret. Flocks of cows replace crows flying in the sky. Giant shoes (not shores!) live on the sandy beaches of her town.
What could have happened to the eighteenth letter of the alphabet? Did it get lost—or stolen? One way or another, the town needs to be saved!
When Trent first read this book, he said (and I quote), “This book should win all the awards! Not just now but forever!” Because of how much he loved the book, we decided to let him and Henry chat about and review the book for us!
Our 8-Year-Olds Chat About the Book:
Henry: Did you notice on the background on the first page that it said “fist place” instead of “first place”? That was so funny!
Trent: Hahahaha! Fist place! Hahahaha! What do you think will happen next because the bees are taking the Zs?
Henry: I would say that…hmm… I don’t know. I think the bees will just be quiet and will say Zs. What do you think?
Trent: Same.
Henry: Have you seen the mice? Have you seen the mice on most of the pages? There’s a little mouse holding a donut on the pages. I love that! Why do you think they did that?
Trent: I didn’t notice that. Oh look at that! I think they are actually rats.
Henry: Yah! Rats without the Rs.
Trent: They are taking the donuts at the bake shop! What are three words without Rs and what would they say?
Henry: Hmm….[looking around the room] Roar would be oa! Hahahahaha! Grown would be gown! Growl would be gowl! Hahaha! Those are so funny!
Trent: In the book, the doo is the door. The cows are the crows. The cane is the crane.
Henry: Oh. You meant from the book! Hahaha! I just picked words!
Trent: Well we are talking about the book, silly.
Henry: Reading would be eading, like eating. Isn’t that funny?
Henry’s little brother: I love this book!
Henry: The go-carts are go-cats! The feet is ferret! The fist is first! What do you think another good letter missing book would be, like this one, that is just as funny as this one?
Trent: But we are talking about this book!
Henry: I know, but I am talking about how this book is funny and thinking about other ones Josh Funk could make.
Trent: E would be good!
Henry: Oh nice! Like “see” would be “ssssss,” hahaha! I like that. Good one, Trent. “Fled” would be “fld.”
Trent: Oh! Compare the spreads on pages 8 and 20. What is the same and what is different? Bake shop, brake shop. That stuff. I like these ones. Taco caves! What do you think taco caves is?
Henry: Oh! Ha! I don’t know! I don’t know! It sounds so funny!
Trent: It’s taco cravers, I think. If you look at the toon town closely inside the brake shop sign, you see posters. And then they are actually different, too.
Henry: Oh!! Taco cravers! Toon Town. Oh! Tires on Brake Shop! I love this book. Oh! Instead of Brake Shop, it is Bake Shop, Trent! We also fix ties instead of tires, it says. Cool! Haha.
Trent: What could the sequel be called with the Zs? It could be My Pet Zzzs.
Henry: Instead of Zzzs for sleeping, it would just say NOTHING! Ha! Why do you think the Bs are taking the Zs away?
Trent: I already asked you that question. Haha!
Henry: On the final page, page 20, in the corner, near Pam’s Bake Shop, the rats are finally eating the donut. Haha! It’s cute. There’s a dog on top, too!
Trent: Oh yah! I see it!
Henry: On page 15, in the left top corner, there is a shoe!
Trent: I know. The sea shore. Shoe, shore. And the pie is the pier.
Henry: Oh yah!
Trent: Josh Funk told me that the illustrator and him didn’t meet before, and there are jokes in the illustration that he didn’t write. Henry, go to the butt page! The gassy field! Page 13!
Henry: Oh, hahahaha! I love this page. Did Josh Funk put that in?
Trent: I think that the illustrator put that in.
Henry: What is your favorite part about the book?
Trent: I like the gassy field the best.
Henry: Hahahaha! I like how they take out the Rs. And I like the gassy fields. And I like the big, giant cow poop. On page 9, they are chasing the poop. And it says “town hall” and it has the poop in front of it.
Trent: It’s the door. It’s supposed to be the door!
Henry: On page 10, if you look in the corner, the door or doo is even bigger.
Trent: Hahahah poop. Hahaha poop.
Henry: What would you rate this book from 1 to 10?
Trent: 10! 10! 10! It was a really good book.
Henry: Same! I rate it a 10, too! I love the crane. The cane!
Trent: Yah, the cane! I like the cane, too. And I like the cows.
Henry: What kind of kids do you think would like to read this book?
Trent: Kindergarten to third, like us.
Henry: Yah, and fourth grade, too. And kids who like potty talk like me. And words.
Trent: Kids who like funny things would really like this book.
Parent Perspective: Not only does this book allow our kids to play with words, they maintained a long conversation about the book without parent prompts. It offered them so much to talk about. In particular, they loved the humor. It made them laugh, and it made them think about different word combinations. This book pushed our kids as readers because they had to pause and consider where the Rs were missing.
We loved this book and think it would be a wonderful addition to classrooms. Although our kids were limited to their own age group, we think readers of all ages would find great joy in the play on words in this book.
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