Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Hieronymus Betts and his Unusual Pets
Picture Book
For ages 4 to 6
Frances Lincoln, 2005 ISBN: 978-1845072896
Hieronymus Betts has a bevy of very unusual pets. He has a slugapotamus which is about as slimy as you can imagine anything being though Hieronymus insists that there is something out there that is even slimier. Then there is his rhino toad Gobbler which is his greediest pet but Hieronymus will tell you that there is something even greedier in his house. Growler the grizzly hare is incredibly fierce but he is not as fierce as...
Hieronymus’s little brother! This little boy is nothing less than a holy terror and he is worse than all of Hieronymus’s pets combined. And yet there is something about him which Hieronymus cannot help liking – sometimes.
Children who have a little brother or sister who drives them round the bend or up the wall will find themselves drawn to this book. They will like the fact that someone else has a sibling who is described as being a little monster and without a doubt Hieronymus’s little brother is definitely a little monster. And yet, at the same time, this little monster is also something else. He is also rather fun to have around. So, for all those long suffering big brother’s and sisters, this book, with its message of comfort and its wonderful illustrations, will provide some relief, some laughs, and a reminder that their own little monster is not always horrible and insufferable. Sometimes he or she is fun.
