Hamster, gryphons, unicorns, mermaids, oh my! What pet will this girl pick?

I saw this one in the book store (Gasp, one of the Rare English books). At first I was attracted to the title. A person would love to have a gryphon as a pet? That doesn’t sound all too safe. Then I grabbed the book and saw the cover, and I knew then I had to read/get this book! That cover just is so adorable and fun, and I loved recognizing all the various mystical beasts that were surrounding the girl in the chair.

And the the book starts off with a hamster. A hamster! One of my favourite animals, and I was a bit tsking at the girl. A hamster is not boring, a hamster is fun, well… except during the night time when they like to be awake and won’t mind gnawing, going around in their wheel for hours at an end. Or like my hamster used to do (and which scared the crap out of me on various occasions), staring at me from the top floor of their cage. Yep. Waking up to go to the bathroom, turn on the light, and see a stock still hamster just sitting there staring in space. Fun times, fun times. 😀

But this girl doesn’t see the fun in a hamster, he is calm, and doesn’t do much, just pees around and is lazy (well duh, generally they are asleep during the day). So she dives into her book, yes, girls and boys, we have a bookworm in our midst, and imagines all the various mystical beasts which seem so much more fun. But she quickly finds out that each mystical beast brings something that isn’t fun. Unicorns are beautiful and lovely, but are terribly shy. Dragons and sneezing? Bad idea! And so it continues, she goes past some more known creatures, but also some that are lesser known, and I just loved that the author didn’t shy away from those.

What the girl does at the end? Well you will have to find out. I do have to give extra points for that wonderful ending. Oh my, I didn’t see that one coming! Love!

The art is gorgeous, really, I loved it to bits. The colours are vibrant and fun, and I enjoyed how the creatures were drawn.

All in all, this is a book I would highly recommend! Bookworms, mystical beasts/creatures, pets, hamsters, and more!